ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the emergence of operational-level thinking in modern armies. Operational art is the synchronising of the activities of multiple tactical forces across wide fronts and to great depth. Operational art is concerned principally with the relationship between time, space, activity and purpose: it seeks to synchronise tactical activities in time and space in order to ensure that they support higher-level objectives. Operational art is therefore associated with the need to think beyond a single battlefield and to focus instead on the knitting together of activities across often very large geographical distances so as to construct a single integrated campaign. The principle of deep operations recognised the fact that the broad front operations of the First World War were indecisive. The level of systematisation of operational art varied, but its importance as a means of restoring the power of decision to the modern battlefield was established.
