John Boyd, Maneuver Warfare, and MCDP-1 (Part 1) with Major Ian Brown

What is “maneuver warfare”? Who is Air Force Colonel John Boyd, who throughout the late 1970s and 1980s found a captive audience in the Marine Corps leadership?

In Episode 11, Major Ian Brown discusses the evolution of the Marine Corps' doctrinal publication, MCDP-1: Warfighting. Furthermore, he focuses on the contribution of Air Force Colonel John Boyd, who developed a brief called “Patterns of Conflict.” This brief combined Boyd’s study of military history with his earlier technical development of Energy-Maneuverability (E-M) theory. The result was a transformational concept of warfare by maneuver, which the Marine Corps released in 1989 in a publication called “Fleet Marine Force Manual 1” (FMFM 1). FMFM 1 was later revised and updated under the direction of General Krulak, 31st Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1997, Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1 was published under the name Warfighting.

Maj Brown wrote a book entitled, A New Conception of War: John Boyd, the U.S. Marines, and Maneuver Warfare. The book is scheduled for release in the summer of 2018. Maj Brown highlights the context and history of the era in which the Marine Corps began to develop its doctrine of maneuver warfare. Maj Brown talks about the principal authors of FMFM-1 and later MCDP1 to include Captain John Schmitt, who was originally tasked with the writing by General Al Gray Jr., 29th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

In Part 1 of this two-part interview, Maj Brown focuses on MCDP1: Warfighting as a book that is timeless because it talks about the human nature of warfighting. Furthermore, Maj Brown discusses the history of the post-Vietnam era, and then dives deep into Colonel John Boyd’s work and contribution to maneuver warfare. 

In the second part of this interview, Maj Brown goes through the text of MCDP1: Warfighting in more detail. 

For copies of Maj Brown’s book, A New Conception of War, send advanced requests to [email protected]

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