Warfighting - Required Reading for all Self-Defence Activities

Warfighting is the U.S. Marines basic philosophical manual that provides the authoritative basis of how they fight and how they prepare to fight. The first chapter in Warfighting concerns the nature of war and the human dimension. The material in that chapter is applicable to all violent encounters and all who prepare themselves or others to engage in a violent encounter by fighting. It should be mandatory reading for all of those people.

Since war is a violent enterprise, danger is ever present. Since war is a human phenomenon, fear, the human reaction to danger, has a significant impact on the conduct of war.

The same is true of all violent encounters. 'Fight Activities,' such as the military, law enforcement, martial arts, self-defence, and combat sports, teach fight. As I explain in Fear and Fight: Understanding Our Natural and Learned Responses to a Threat, fear impinges upon a person's readiness and ability to engage in and succeed in a fight. This is why the Warfighting manual instructs, 

Leaders must study fear, understand it, and be prepared to cope with it.

It's not just Marine leaders that must study fear, understand it, and be prepared to cope with it. It is anyone who is involved in preparing themselves or others to engage in a violent encounter. If you do not study fear, understand it, and be prepared to cope with it, you are not teaching effective fight behaviour. You are not teaching effective self-defence.