Knowra Center of gravity (military) Center of gravity (military) A military center of gravity is a source of power that provides an actor with strength, freedom of action, or will to fight. Disrupting or neutralizing it can critically weaken that actor.
Clausewitzian Center of Gravity : A strategic analysis concept identifying the focal point on which an opposing force’s strength and movement depend. Clausewitz’s metaphor supplies the concept’s enduring image of concentrated power.
Carl von Clausewitz : A Prussian general and military theorist whose unfinished work On War examined the nature and conduct of war. He introduced the center-of-gravity metaphor into modern strategic thought.
Center of Gravity (Physics) : The point at which an object’s weight can be considered to act for analyzing its balance and motion. The physical meaning inspired the military metaphor but does not describe an enemy’s literal location.
Napoleon’s Grande Armée : The French imperial army that fought across Europe under Napoleon Bonaparte from 1805 to 1815. Clausewitz treated the main army as the center of gravity in wars between states with large forces.
Critical Vulnerability : A weakness whose exploitation can significantly impair a system or organization. Campaign planners seek vulnerabilities whose effects reach the opponent’s center of gravity.
On War : Carl von Clausewitz’s posthumously published study of war, its political character, and its conduct. Its account of concentrated strength is the concept’s principal intellectual source.
Schwerpunkt : A German term meaning focal point or main effort, used in military contexts for the concentration of effort. It is often treated as equivalent to center of gravity, though its doctrinal use can differ.
Prussian Army in 1806 : The Prussian field army defeated by Napoleon’s forces at Jena and Auerstedt in October 1806. Its collapse illustrates how defeat of a principal force can unravel a state’s capacity to continue fighting.
Decisive Point : A geographic place, event, or capability that enables a commander to gain a marked advantage. Seizing decisive points can create access to, or leverage against, a center of gravity.
Antoine-Henri Jomini : A Swiss military theorist who sought enduring principles of warfare through geometry, lines of operation, and decisive points. His emphasis on decisive points offers a different route to locating strategic leverage.
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