The Need for Organisational Resilience Chapter 5

Von Clausewitz argued:

Military virtue is for the parts, what the genius of the Commander is for the whole. The General can

only guide the whole, not each separate and individual part, and where he cannot guide the part,

there military virtue must lead. A General is chosen on the basis of reputedly superior talents; the

chief leader of a large group following a careful probation. This element of probation diminishes as we

descend in rank just as we may reckon less and less on the basis of individual talents lower down the

hierarchy; what is wanting in this respect should be supplied by military virtue. Military virtue can be

equated with the natural qualities of a warlike people: BRAVERY, APTITUDE, POWERS OF

ENDURANCE and ENTHUSIASM.

These properties may therefore supply the equivalent of military virtue, and vice versa; from

which the following may be deduced:

1. Military virtue is a quality of standing Armies, which is where it is most required. In

national risings, its place is taken by natural qualities, which develop themselves there

more rapidly.

2. Standing Armies can more easily dispense with military virtue than can a standing Army

opposed to a national insurrection; for in the latter case, the troops are more scattered,

and divisions left more to themselves. But where an Army can be kept concentrated, the

genius of the General has a greater role to play, and supplies what is wanting in the spirit

of the Army. Therefore, general military virtue is proportionately more necessary when

the theatre of operations and other circumstances make the War complicated, and forces

are scattered. (Adapted from Von Clausewitz 2011, 79)

De Jomini stated:

The most essential qualities for a general will always be as follows: First, A high moral courage,

capable of great resolution. Second , A physical courage which takes no account of danger . A

general’s scientific or military acquirements are secondary to these characteristics, though if great

they are valuable auxiliaries. It is not necessary that he should be a man of vast erudition. His

7 | P a g e