Coup D'oeil

From Dr. Anna Simons' latest SSI monograph:

Visionary generals are said to possess “coup d’oeil”; they can size up the tactical, operational, and strategic dimensions of a battlefield and see scenes as both the sum of their parts and as wholes.

The concept of coup d'eoil, of course, is familiar to anyone who has read or studied 19th century military thought. The interesting thing is that the idea behind holistic systems thinking--of looking at situations, organizations, and problems as integrated wholes rather than through reductionism, has many similarities to the classical methodology. This is only one of the ways in which modern science and political science is struggling to catch up to the insights of figures like Clausewitz 200 years ago.

Comments

[Joseph Fouche]

That monograph seemed like a hip-hop remix of CvC. Repetition is the secret of education I guess.

Curious that holism was invented by former insurgent leader Jan Smuts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Smuts#Soldier.2C_statesman.2C_and_scholar

[A.E.]

The phrase "hip-hop remix of CvC" made me frantically scour the depths of the internets looking for an actual rap or even one SONG about Clausewitz. No one has yet written one!