Innovating Military Theory Facing Military Practice

During his inspection of the Academy of Military Sciences, President Xi stressed that it is necessary to open a closed loop from practice to theory and then from theory to practice, so that the research of military theory can be rooted in the fertile soil of practice, be tested by practice, and realize the benign interaction between theory and practice. Today, with the surge of the new military revolution in the world, it is necessary to further handle the dialectical relationship between military theory and military practice in order to implement the spirit of the 19th Party Congress and promote the modernization of military theory.

Grasp the law of military practice and enhance the consciousness of military theory innovation

Since the birth of the war, human military practice has gone through thousands of years, including wood and stone age, metal age, gunpowder age and mechanization age, and is now striding towards the information age. To innovate military theory, only by thinking through time and space and knowing the overall situation of human military practice, especially war practice, can we base ourselves on the universal law of military practice and accurately grasp the characteristics of the times of military practice.

Grasp the universal law behind it through twists and turns. According to relevant statistics, from 3200 BC to 1964 AD, there were more than 14,500 wars in the world. These wars are different in nature, scale and ways of confrontation, and even have different faces. However, all war practices have common and universal laws. For example, wars are the continuation of politics, so there are points of justice and injustice; Wars are violent confrontations, which will cause more or less destruction and casualties; The final decisive factor of the victory or defeat of a war is people, so no matter how weapons and equipment develop, it will not ultimately decide the victory or defeat of a war, and so on. After entering the 21st century, when people talk about information, intelligence and unmanned warfare, and today, more and more attention is paid to technology and equipment, it is necessary to avoid seeing things but not people and ensure that military theoretical innovation advances in the right direction.

He is good at following the trend with time and understanding the internal password of change. War is often a huge system involving complex variables. Changes in political, economic, social, cultural and diplomatic factors, innovations in equipment, technology, talents, organization and tactics will all affect the development of military practice and the evolution of military theory. To innovate military theory, we must try our best to grasp why, where and how military practice changes from these changes, and earnestly grasp the historical law of the evolution of military practice. Specifically, to innovate military theory under the new historical conditions, we must see many characteristics of modern warfare, such as large economic investment, high technology content, fast combat action, and many political restrictions, and recognize the basic characteristics of the development of modern military forces, such as small quantity and scale, fine strength, excellent organizational structure, and fine command and management.

Be familiar with the changes of ancient and modern times and predict the future development trend. In the long history of war, there are both long gradual changes and short-term drastic changes. To promote the innovation of military theory, we should not only clearly predict the long-term trend of military practice development, but also attach great importance to major military mutations and their possible subversive effects. For example, once laser and quantum replace electrons as the new foundation of information technology, it will have a far-reaching impact on the rules of information attack and defense and the comparison of strategic forces. It can be seen that fully grasping the development trend of future military practice and clearly estimating the possible sudden changes are important guarantees for mastering the initiative and winning the future.

Correcting the innovation direction of military theory by comparing the effectiveness of military practice

The effectiveness of military theory innovation ultimately depends on military practice to test and correct. The innovation of military theory must jump out of the self-circulation of thinking, adhere to the test standard of practice, enrich the test methods of practice and expand the test ways of practice.

Test the innovation of military theory with new war practice. Engels once profoundly pointed out that in a long period of peace, how much weapons have improved due to the development of industry, how much combat methods have fallen behind. The lessons of Maginot Line of Defense have repeatedly warned people to avoid using yesterday’s brain to understand today’s war and break through the imprisonment of old thinking. The fundamental way is to constantly reflect on new war practice, recognize the unique essence and laws of modern war, objectively predict the development trend of war practice, find an effective way to win, and blow off the historical dust in military theory.

Test the innovation of military theory with the practice of preparing for war and using troops. Preparation for military struggle is the key link between army building and combat, an important aspect of peacetime military practice, and also provides a means to test the effectiveness of military theory innovation. It is necessary to unify the practice of combat readiness with the reflection of theory, find and solve the contradictions between them, effectively correct the tendency of theory to be divorced from actual combat, and promote it to be close to war. Although there is no war in peacetime, the practice of using troops in peacetime, such as anti-terrorism, maintaining stability, international peacekeeping and military deterrence, has opened up new ways to test the theoretical results. Making good use of the successful experience of these non-war military operations is conducive to sharpening the practical quality of military theory.

Test the innovation of military theory with the practice of building and managing the army. In peacetime, building and managing the army is the most basic military practice. We should persist in testing the innovative achievements of military theory with actual combat training, and make the innovative achievements of military theory constantly focus on combat effectiveness and lead to actual combat through layer-by-layer screening of basic training, synthetic training, joint training and mission training practice. In particular, we should make good use of the ruler of training practice, insist on training to measure the effectiveness of theoretical innovation in equipment, technology, battlefield and management, and measure the gains and losses of theoretical innovation in various fields, levels, links and elements with training, squeeze out all kinds of ideological bubbles that cannot stand the test of training, and correct all kinds of theoretical deviations that deviate from actual combat training.

Test the innovation of military theory with military virtual practice. Simulation training, virtual simulation, network confrontation and other means, in an immersive and interactive way, can make the officers and men involved get a personal feeling of the future war and an ideological impact that is close to actual combat, which has a good test and evaluation effect on the virtual and real, long and short, superior and inferior in military theoretical innovation. It is an important achievement of the creative application of modern soft science and high technology represented by information technology in training and exercises, and has opened up a relatively independent new channel to test the innovative achievements of military theory. Comprehensive development and application of military virtual practice, giving full play to the role of military virtual practice in testing military theoretical innovation, and combining it with real military practice will help to better play the role of military practice testing and better correct the direction of military theoretical innovation.

Innovating military theory and leading the development of military practice

With the progress of technology and the development of human society, military theory has more and more functions of designing wars and leading the development of wars. Realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in the great global changes requires our military theory to have a broader vision, a more forward-looking vision, a keen grasp of the world’s military development trends, and a moderate lead in the development of war practice.

Keep up with the trend of the situation and grasp the historical position of military practice. With the group rise of emerging countries and the relative decline of western power, the global power balance has undergone profound changes, and the Asia-Pacific region has increasingly become the global geographical focus. The structural contradictions between the rising countries and the defending countries have increased, and the risks of competition, games and even conflicts and confrontations among big countries have increased. At the same time, the increasingly close interest ties formed by economic globalization, the increasing number of common multiple security threats faced by all countries, and the growing sense of community of human destiny all shape and restrict the way of resolving contradictions among big countries from different aspects, making it unlikely that a full-scale war will break out between big countries or even trigger a world war. However, military contests such as proxy war, marginal war, armed confrontation and strategic deterrence, which use strategic means to seek benefits, are inevitable, which requires military theoretical innovation to further broaden its horizons and guide military practice.

Keep up with the trend of technology and grasp the operation law of military practice. The use of metals, the invention of stirrups, the appearance of gunpowder, the introduction of tanks, the development of nuclear weapons and the change of information technology have triggered profound changes in the form and mode of warfare again and again. Judging from the previous military revolutions, the scientific and technological revolution is the most profound factor that triggered the military revolution. To promote military theoretical innovation, we must pay close attention to the development trend of science and technology. On the one hand, it is necessary to grasp the military possibilities contained in technological breakthroughs, especially the fundamental changes in confrontation rules and operational mechanisms caused by subversive technologies. The key here is to use the magnifying glass of military thought to select various technical possibilities, find out technological breakthroughs with great military value and study and develop them; On the other hand, we should find out the strategic demand for developing specific technology from the demand of political, economic and strategic games, and actively cultivate the technological fire to meet this strategic demand.

Follow the trend of national conditions and grasp the characteristics of China in military practice. To innovate military theory and lead military development, we should grasp the general laws of human military development, study the special laws of China’s military development, and influence and even lead the development of military practice with the original design of the development and application of China’s military forces. First, focus on ensuring peaceful development, pursue an active defense strategy, refrain from military expansion and arms race, and establish a theoretical perspective of providing strong military support for common security and mutual benefit. Second, to develop the people’s war in the new era, we always regard serving the people, organizing the people and relying on the people as the starting point and the end result of the innovative development of military theory. The third is based on me. Resolutely oppose copying the West in terms of ideas, paths, modes, technologies and organizations, strive to take root in China’s national conditions and military situation, identify the key points and shortcomings of strong enemies, and seize the initiative and lead the future in the design of strength development and application.

(The author is a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences)