s as to costs, in war, also assume a special
significance, inasmuch as they may materially influence the
development of entire nations or of the world situation.

Factors as Universal Determinants in War. Tabulated for convenient
reference and expressed in terms in general use in the military
profession, the factors governing the attainment of an end in war are
therefore:

(a) The Nature of the appropriate Effect Desired,
(b) The Means Available and Opposed,
(c) The Characteristics of the Theater of Operations,
and
(d) The Consequences as to Costs.

These factors, thus expressed in abstract form, are the universal
determinants of the nature of the objective and of the character of
the action to attain it. Their further resolution into factors of more
concrete form is indicated hereinafter (see Chapter VI, in the
discussion of Section II of the Estimate Form).

The Objective in War. The objective (page 3), a term long in use in
the military profession in connection with the "objective point", has
acquired by extension the significance of something more than the
physical object of action. The latter, as explained later (page 37),
is properly denominated the "physical objective".

In the abstract, an "objective", in present general usage as well as
in the military vocabulary, is an end toward which action is being
directed, or is to be directed; in brief, an end in view, a result to
be attained, an effect desired (pages 19 and 30). An objective is an
effect to be produced for the attainment of a further objective,
itself a further effect. As already demonstrated (page 30 and
following), the attainment of an end, in any human activity, requires
action to maintain the existing situation or to create a new one.
Therefore, in war, a special form of human activity, the attainment of
an objective requires that action be actual imposition of an outside
agency. The attainment of a correct military objective (discussed in
detail in Chapter IV) requires, accordingly, the creation or
maintenance of a favorable military situation.

An objective, in the sense of an end in view, a result to be
accomplished, is manifestly an objective in mind. As already indicated
(page 36), however, military usage also assigns to the term
"objective" an additional meaning, a meaning exclusively concrete.
Results in war are attained through the actual or threatened use of
physical force (pages 8 and 9) directed with relation to som