On May 19, Forward Defense and Transatlantic Security Initiative Senior Fellow Kathleen McInnis wrote an article for Foreign Policy entitled “Strategists Have Forgotten the Power of Stories.” She argues that, for wicked problems in international security, overly quantitative approaches (what the Greeks referred to as logos) are insufficient. Instead, decision-makers must also leverage creative instincts and intuition (i.e. mythos) to avoid failures of imagination and develop effective strategies. Dr. McInnis uses both historical examples and the methodology of narrative to remind us “that victory is a product of holistic thinking, that it is essential to infuse creativity into decisions of state, and that war itself is an art.”
Finely tuned intuitive and creative senses are essential to cultivating the coup d’oeil. This is why we call it the art of war.
