Shock and awe

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For other uses, see Shock and Awe (disambiguation).

Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade in 1996 and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States.

Doctrine of rapid dominance[edit]



Further, rapid dominance will



Ullman and Wade identify four vital characteristics of rapid dominance: "near total or absolute knowledge and understanding of self, adversary, and environment; rapidity and timeliness in application; operational brilliance in execution; and (near) total control and signature management of the entire operational environment."[5] Shock and awe is most consistently used by Ullman and Wade as the effect that rapid dominance seeks to impose upon an adversary. It is the desired state of helplessness and lack of will. It can be induced, they write, by direct force applied to command and control centers, selective denial of information and dissemination of disinformation, overwhelming combat force, and rapidity of action.

The doctrine of rapid dominance has evolved from the concept of "decisive force". Ullman and Wade enumerate the elements between the two concepts in terms of objective, use of force, force size, scope, speed, casualties, and technique.

Civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure[edit]

Although Ullman and Wade claim that the need to "Minimize civilian casualties, loss of life, and collateral damage" is a "political sensitivity [which needs] to be understood up front", their doctrine of rapid dominance requires the capability to disrupt "means of communication, transportation, food production, water supply, and other aspects of infrastructure",[6] and, in practice, "the appropriate balance of Shock and Awe must cause ... the threat and fear of action that may shut down all or part of the adversary's society or render his ability to fight useless short of complete physical destruction."[7]



Historical applications[edit]




Iraq War[edit]

Main article: 2003 invasion of Iraq


Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, officials in the United States armed forces described their plan as employing shock and awe.[10]

Conflicting pre-war assessments[edit]




Conflicting post-war assessments[edit]




Criticism of execution[edit]

According to The Guardian correspondent Brian Whitaker in 2003, "To some in the Arab and Muslim countries, Shock and Awe is terrorism by another name; to others, a crime that compares unfavourably with September 11."[16] Anti-war protesters in 2003 also claimed that "the shock and awe pummeling of Baghdad [was] a kind of terrorism."[17]




In popular culture[edit]

Following the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003, the term shock and awe has been used for commercial purposes. The United States Patent and Trademark Office received at least 29 trademark applications in 2003 for exclusive use of the term.[20] The first came from a fireworks company on the day the United States started bombing Baghdad. Sony registered the trademark the day after the beginning of the operation for use in a video game title, but later withdrew the application and described it as "an exercise of regrettable bad judgment."[21] It is also the name of a level in the video game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, in which United States Marine Corps forces execute the strategy in an unnamed Middle-Eastern country, before themselves falling victim to a nuclear blast. The term is also used as an achievement in the popularly acclaimed game Starcraft 2, it is obtained when an a certain amount of units die to the tactical strike craft whilst invisible. It is also the name of an achievement in Gears of War 2 and Miss Fortune weapons in League of Legends. Miscellaneous other uses of the term include golf equipment, an insecticide, a set of bowling balls, a racehorse, a shampoo, condoms, and heroin. The phrase was also suggested by the title of the Toby Keith album Shock'n Y'all, the hit from which was the pro-military "American Soldier".


Max Brooks' 2006 post-apocalyptic horror novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War contains a pointed criticism of "Shock and Awe" tactics, in the chapter relating the defeat of the U.S. military by a zombie horde numbering in the millions at the cataclysmic Battle of Yonkers. Brooks' criticism is that Shock and Awe tactics are essentially a relic of Cold War strategies for fighting the Soviet Union in the Fulda Gap of West Germany, and are not effective for combating guerrilla fighters in protracted insurgencies. Particularly, Brooks' point is that the entire concept of "Shock and Awe" is rendered moot when facing enemy combatants who by definition have no fear of death: be they zombies, kamikaze pilots, or suicide bombers.

In the 2011 scifi film Battle: Los Angeles, the hostile aliens that are invading Earth are stated during a USMC press conference to be carrying out a "textbook campaign of rapid dominance".

See also[edit]


  2. ^ Ullman and Wade, Shock and Awe, XXV.
  3. ^ Ullman and Wade, Shock and Awe, Prologue.
  5. ^ Ullman and Wade, Shock and Awe, XII.
  6. ^ Ullman and Wade, Shock and Awe, Introduction.
  7. ^ Ullman and Wade, Shock and Awe, Chapter 5.
  8. ^ Ullman and Wade, Shock and Awe, Chapter 1.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]