What I Learned From the PLA’s Latest Strategy Textbook
May 25, 2021 08:32 AM
Age: 4 hours
Image: The cover of the 2020 revision of the Science of Military Strategy, released in August 2020 (Source: Author’s records).
Introduction
Science of Military Strategy (战略学,
zhanlüe xue) (SMS), a core textbook for senior PLA officers on how wars should be planned and conducted at the strategic level. This article compares the 2020 version of this book with its last revision, in 2017, and finds that the former contains new details on wartime political work, “intelligentization” concepts, China’s military strategic guidelines, major war operations, joint logistics and the People’s Armed Police. It should be a go-to reference for those seeking to understand Chinese military thinking as it is currently explained to PLA officers themselves.