Lawrence was ahead of his time. After an examination of his operations with the Arab regular and irregular forces, it can be said that he was not only conducting unconventional warfare, he was bringing hybrid war to bear against a formidable enemy in the Ottoman Turks. Long before tabs, berets, and beards, Lawrence was conducting special operations in the Middle East, using psychological warfare and guerilla tactics with great effect.
Similar to Mao, Lawrence understood the importance of people in politics and war. “Above all it is the local view,” Lawrence believed, which mattered most. Winning allegiance was of supreme importance. Dr. Johnson highlights the “similarity with Lawrence’s suggested ‘arrangement of the minds’ of local forces, the population, and the enemy,” with Mao’s theory of Revolutionary Warfare as “uncanny.”
Off the battlefield, Lawrence had strong and unique views on professional development. In correspondence with Liddell Hart, he warned of the “mentally cramping effects of military professionalism and the tendency of British soldiers to acquiesce unduly in the hierarchy of seniority.” Lawrence called for ‘hard study’ and ‘brain work,’ acquiring a ‘human intelligence’ through creative professional education, not mechanistic training. This debate is still alive and well today.
Dr. Johnson captures Lawrence’s reflections of war with depth, and yields new insights not known to many. After reading this book, it is clear that Lawrence valued leadership, and he urged rigorous study of war in all its manifestations to properly prepare “for the stress, urgency, and intensity of decision-making in conflict.” As he once reminded Liddell Hart, “with 2,000 years of examples behind us we have no excuse when fighting, for not fighting well.”
Perhaps the greatest story from the book is one of moral courage. To be sure, Lawrence was disruptive and disliked discipline, that is, he did not like blind obedience. He did not simply command the band of Arabs to do the King’s bidding, rather he advocated for an ‘arranging of the minds’ and evoked a sense of passion and honor that inspired these fighters to work together with common purpose. At times he acted with defiance, and did not easily succumb to conventional thinking. The virtue of such patience and vigor is timeless in war.
What are Key LAGER Engagements?
Key Leader Engagements or KLEs are an important aspect of Civil Affairs Operations and provide a medium for Civil Affairs personnel to engage directly with individuals of authority that represent a spectrum of contextual roles within society. KLEs are vital for understanding the human terrain of a given operating environment as well as building rapport with local populations and institutions. Eunomia Journal’s “Key LAGER Engagement” series strives to serve similar functions as its operational counterpart by providing a forum for the Eunomia Team to engage in constructive dialogue with prominent authors from academia, policy, and fiction and most importantly, do so in a lighthearted environment over drinks. Key Lager Engagements enable members of the Civil Affairs Association and Eunomia Journal subscribers to better understand new topics, theories, and concepts that can potentially impact or improve the capacity of all our members’ professional lives in a fun and engaging way.
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