The Relationship Between Airpower Theories and Strategic Communication

Abstract

The present article explores strategic communication related aspects in the military theories of classical thinkers who have laid out the foundational theses of air warfare and in the military theories of thinkers who have hallmarked the new era of airpower theories. This article demonstrates that the concepts of strategic communication have been integral to airpower theories from the outset as well as that airpower theorists attribute an exceptionally strong strategic communication impact to air warfare. One of the basic assumptions of airpower theories is that airstrikes impose a psychological impact in the minds of enemy populations and of enemy leadership which is key to breaking the enemy’s will and to enforcing the will of the attacking party, and ultimately to achieving the political objective of warfare. This assumption is equally characteristic of classical as of modern airpower theories. However, neither classical, nor modern theories lay out findings of a general validity when it comes to the mechanisms which lead from airstrikes to forcing the enemy to surrender.