The Book of Deuteronomy prescribes how the Israelite army was to fight, including dealing with plunder, enslavement of the enemy women and children and forbidding the destruction of fruit-bearing trees.
Sun Tzu's The Art of War, written c. 400 BCE, listed five basic factors for a commander to consider: However, Sun Tzu implied individual initiative as a principle of warfare, stating "According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one's plans."
[citation needed][2][3] This has contributed to the erroneous belief that Napoléon Bonaparte had pioneered the "Principles of War".
Napoléon was a keen follower of famous military generals of the past, who influenced his thoughts greatly.
[citation needed] Although originally concerned with strategy, grand strategy and tactics, due to the changing nature of warfare and military technology, since the interwar period, the principles are largely applied[citation needed] to the strategic decision-making, and in some cases, to operational mobility of forces.
The initial essay dealt with the tactics of combat, and suggested the following general principles: Based on the above, Clausewitz went on to suggest principles for tactics, the scale of combat that dominated European warfare at the time: Clausewitz also included in the essay general principles of strategy by saying that Warfare has three main objects: Strategic Defense Strategic Offense Antoine Henri Jomini in his book, Precis de l'Art de Guerre, published in 1838, also developed theories of warfare based on the concepts and methods used during the Napoleonic Wars.
Colonel Ardant du Picq, a French infantry officer who was killed in the Franco-Prussian War, prepared drafts based on his observations of military history which became the book Battle Studies.
[7] Admiral William S. Sims, who commanded the U.S. Navy's contribution to the British Grand Fleet in World War I, wrote of the U.S.
The relative importance of each may vary according to context; their application requires judgement, common sense and intelligent interpretation.
Commanders also need to take into account the legitimacy of their actions, based on the legal, moral, political, diplomatic and ethical propriety of the conduct of military forces, once committed."
Western systems allow more control and decision-making at lower levels of command, and with this empowerment comes a consistent emphasis.
(Refer to US Army Field Manual FM 3–0) The United States Armed Forces use the following nine principles of war: Officers in the U.S. Military sometimes use the acronyms "MOSS MOUSE", "MOOSE MUSS", "MOUSE MOSS", "MOM USE SOS", and "SUMO MOSES" to remember the first letters of these nine principles.
[12] The United States government stated in an undated Department of Justice White paper entitled "Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa’ida or An Associated Force" that the four fundamental law-of-war principles governing the use of force are necessity, distinction, proportionality and humanity i.e. the avoidance of unnecessary suffering.
The PLA is currently influenced by three doctrinal schools which both conflict and complement each other: the People's war, the Regional war, and the Revolution in military affairs that led to substantial increase in the defence spending and rate of technological modernisation of the forces.
Some of the twelve non-military principles of efficiency were formulated by Henry Ford at the turn of the 20th century,[21] and are suggested to be[citation needed]: objective, coordination, action, reality, knowledge, locations (space and time), things, obtaining, using, protecting, and losing.