Maneuver Warfare Collection - Marine Corps Association

Marine Corps Maneuver Warfare

The historical context

To understand where you are and where you are going, it is important to know where you have been. The future evolves from the past.

Twenty-eight years ago, the Marine Corps published Fleet Marine Force Manual 1, Warfighting, solidifying maneuver warfare as its warfighting doctrine and philosophy. FMFM 1 has since been renamed MCDP 1, Warfighting, and its writings have stood the test of time through the last eighteen years of

Reinvigorating Maneuver Warfare

Our priorities for manning, training, equipping, and educating should be on our close combat units

We need to establish career length PME continuums for our officers and SNCOs ...

What Marines Believe About War and Warfare

…it is better to defeat an enemy through systemic disruption than cumulative attrition—historically the two basic defeat mechanisms—because disruption can achieve disproportionately greater results for the resources expended.

Simple Orders in Complex Warfare

Use of simple priorities

ADM Nelson’s use of commander’s intent built trust and unleashed intelligent initiative by emphasizing short and concise guidance.

Spectrum Contested Environments

Maneuver warfare and command and control in an EMS environment

In practical terms, the average infantry battalion in the Marine Corps is the base unit for combat operations within the construct of the MAGTF.

Maneuver Warfare in the Cyber Domain

A proposal to update the existing legal framework to facilitate decentralized decision making in cyber operations

In the absence of treaties or statutes, the DOD and Marine Corps have taken steps to adapt to and regulate this new wrinkle in modern warfare.

Threats Defeated Through Doctrine

Art and science in warfare

Art and science in warfare In the history of man, war has existed as a function of expression and a problem-solving solution. [...]some believe current Marine Corps doctrine does not prepare Marines to perform maneuver warfare concepts. [...]Marine Corps maneuver warfare concepts described in MCDP

Cultivating Critical and Strategic Thinkers

Learning from the past, preparing for the future1

[...]remembering his emphasis in the context of current PME challenges, including what teaching methodologies are most appropriate, will be useful. According to Kenneth Andrews' classic definition, a case is a carefully written description of an actual situation in business which provokes in the

People First

Inspiring an intellectual renaissance to reinvigorate strategic thinking in the Marine Corps

Critical Thinking, PME, and Maneuver Warfare After the decades-long Vietnam war effort, the United States faced great challenges, including a great power competition with the Soviet Union, a burgeoning terrorist threat, an inflationravaged economy, and the transition to the All-Volunteer Force.3

On War’s Continued Relevancy

The throng and nature of war

First was his extensive combat service, beginning in 1793 and including the time spent writing On War between 1816 and 1830. [...]was the influence of the changing intellectual environment in Prussia amidst the German movement, which challenged much of the Enlightenment's way of thinking. The work