Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 27

UNCONVENTIONAL ART

approaches. Modern war should
similarly integrate the principles of
traditional strategists with modern
means and unconventional warfare’s
evolving ways.
To win in a complex world, the
United States must become more
comfortable with operating in the
negative space of unconventional
war. Clausewitz advises the strategist to know the nature of war.
For the United States to know the
nature of its wars in a world of many
cultures, its leaders must better
understand the limitations of its
approach to strategic thought. They
must recognize that war is not a
narrow and specific activity of violence isolated from other elements
of national power. War is not just
a way for political ends. Rather, it
is the vibrancy and interchange of
diplomacy and organized force—
organized force that affects both
the actors and the many nonlinear
systems composing the world with
unpredictable results. War, being as
chaotic as Boccioni’s Dynamism of
Soccer Player, needs to be understood
as a violent struggle that is anything
but conventional.

Biography
Maj. Randall A. Linnemann,
U.S. Army, is the regimental signal officer for the
75th Ranger Regiment, Fort
Benning, Georgia. He holds
a BA from the University of
Dayton and an MA from
the Naval War College. He
has served in a variety of
signal command and staff
assignments.

MILITARY REVIEW  May-June 2016

(Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Magpies and Hare (1061), ink and watercolor on silk, by Cui Bai.

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