Winning is a matter of finding and neutralizing an adversary’s “center of gravity.” This is often a rival’s army, whose destruction usually ends its ability to fight. But routing an army is not always the most effective path. “The moral elements are among the most important in war,” Clausewitz wrote. “They constitute the spirit that permeates war as a whole . . . They establish a close affinity with the will that moves and leads the whole mass of force.” Figure out how to shatter a rival’s spirit, and you might win the war, while avoiding the enemy army entirely.
