Military strategy is rich ground to till for concepts related to self-defense. Much time and energy is spent in military organizations defining the nature of conflicts and devising means to overcome them according to their objectives. Many different models have arisen from these efforts over the centuries. As individuals, we can adapt some of these models to help us deal with conflicts that arise for us. One of the most useful and universally applicable models of conflict was devised fairly recently, in the late 80's by a fighter pilot in the Korean War, John Boyd.

Boyd's model is fully realized in his 1986 presentation, "The Nature of Conflict". Through the experience of aerial combat, Boyd emphasizes quick maneuvers that are designed to get the opponent to react in a predictable manner and expose a weakness in order to shoot them down. These methods are infinitely scale-able, in that a fighter pilot could use this approach to win a dogfight, or an army could use this approach to win a battle, or even a whole campaign.

At the core of Boyd's model is the OODA Loop, which stands for
observe-orient-decide-act. The actions of the opponents in any conflict, large or small, can be illustrated by this loop:


Starting at the top, an individual realizes they are in a conflict by observing the conditions around them. As the loop progresses, orienting by filtering information and making decisions leads to action. Finally, the resulting feedback provides new observations and the loop begins anew where you see the arrows split two ways:

• One - If the conflict continues, am I better or worse off? Has a way to achieve victory or to get out presented itself?
• Two - If you are out of the conflict, was it resolved successfully? Is there a risk of renewed conflict or a revenge situation that persists?

The goal of using the OODA loop is to "simultaneously compress our own time and stretch out adversary time to generate a favorable mismatch in time/ability to shape and adapt to change." Boyd's observations of air combat taught him that it is vital to change speed and direction faster than the opponent, favoring agility over brute force. Our timing is dependent on our ability to quickly formulate and act on decisions. We need to increase our opponent's decision-making cycle while shortening our own, putting us inside their loop. Feints, distractions, and/or decisive and aggressive action towards an opponent's weak points are some of the methods used to accomplish this.

There are several crucial barriers to quick decision making. There is the memory of past failures and successes, cultural and environmental predispositions, the possibly overwhelming flow of new information, and the actual time (in milliseconds) it takes to synthesize and analyze choices down to the final one for action. This is why Boyd feels that orientation "is the most important part of the OODA loop since it shapes the way we observe, the way we decide, the way we act". Preconceptions, distractions, and habits of mind can act as a veil over our ability to observe and orient, keeping us from seeing crucial opportunities or worsening conditions. This is also where training and preparation have the greatest effect.

By now I hope you can see the value of studying military strategies as related to self-defense. Militaries have thousands of brilliant minds working on these issues constantly. Whether you feel these minds are being wasted or not, certainly we can all agree that it is useful to learn from their efforts. It is also true that sometimes who we are up against will be using these techniques on us. We need to develop strategic thinking skills that are equal to or superior to those that may wish to harm us.

Next month, we will dive into the model a little deeper, and I will offer concrete linkages between this strategic model and your training approach. I'm sure you can see that training and preparation would help in the "Action" phase as well as the orientation phase. I appreciate any feedback you might have, and I will take suggestions and push them back into future analysis and diagrams.