What is Military Doctrine?

What is Doctrine?

Joint Publication 1-02, the DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, defines doctrine as the fundamental principles by which the military forces or elements thereof guide their actions in support of national objectives.  It is authoritative but requires judgment in application.

Army Field Manual 1 The Army describes doctrine as "the concise expression of how Army forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements.  It is a guide to action, not hard and fast rules.  Doctrine provides a common frame of reference across the Army.  It helps standardize operations, facilitating readiness by establishing common ways of accomplishing military tasks.  Standardization means that soldiers transferring between units do not need to learn new ways to perform familiar tasks."

FM 1 further states that "doctrine facilitates communication among soldiers, contributes to a shared professional culture, and serves as the basis for curricula in the Army education system.  The Army is a learning organization.  It has evolved with the nation through societal changes, technological advancements, and ever changing international circumstances.  It continually revises its doctrine to account for changes, incorporating new technologies and lessons from operations.  At improves education and training processes to provide soldiers with the most challenging and realistic experience possible.  IT aims to impart to soldiers and units the individual and collective skills, knowledge, and attributes required to accomplish their missions."

"Doctrine links theory, history, experimentation, and practice.  Its objective is to foster initiative and creative thinking.  Doctrine encapsulates a larger body of knowledge and experience.  It provides an authoritative statement about how military forces conduct operations and a common lexicon with which to describe them.  Doctrine furnishes the intellectual tools with which to diagnose unexpected requirements.  It also provides a menu of practical options based on experience from which self-aware and adaptive Army leaders can create their own solutions quickly and effectively."

Joint doctrine presents fundamental principles that guide the employment of US military forces in coordinated and integrated action toward a common objective.  It promotes a common perspective from which to plan, train, and conduct military operations.  It represents what is taught, believed, and advocated as what is right (i.e., what works best).  It provides distilled insights and wisdom gained from employing the military instrument of national power in operations to achieve national objectives.  Joint doctrine is published in a series of Joint Publications--

• JP 1 is the joint capstone doctrinal publication.
• JP 1-02 is the DOD Dictionary of Military Terms and Abbreviations.
• JP 1-0 series:  personnel.
• JP 2-0 series:  intelligence.
• JP 3-0 series:  operations.
• JP 4-0 series:  logistics.
• JP 5-0 series:  planning.
• JP 6-0 series:  communications systems.

Army doctrine is published in field manuals numbered to correspond with joint doctrine.  The Army has two capstone doctrinal publications, FM 1 and FM 3-0 Operations.