Friction and Military Performance: How the Environment Disrupts Military Operations

Why do militaries underperform expectations? Most explanations point to nonmaterial factors, such as institutions or military doctrine, to explain how militaries fail to meet their potential. However, turning back to Carl von Clausewitz reveals a material explanation for poor military performance: friction. Friction, defined as the damage and degradation inflicted on military forces by the environment, prevents military forces from properly using their material capabilities to their fullest extent despite their level of skill, professionalism, or doctrine. Understood this way, friction has a number of implications for security studies and IR theory. A theory of friction would suggest significant revisions to the way geography is used in security studies to explain international politics. Most significantly, friction’s potential strategic impact beyond the battlefield suggests that sufficient friction could obscure the balance of power in world politics, affecting states’ ability to measure military power and effectively bargain with their military forces.