National Socialist Ideology Impact on Strategy and Operational Art

From the extreme right emerged the NSDAP- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeitspartei, the National SocialistGerman Workers Party. The National Socialists drew on multiple sources of nationalist information, beliefs, myths, andconspiracies to form their ideology and philosophy or world view, a Weltanschauung. Hitler's message was centered onleadership, race, and socioeconomic relations. National Socialist ideology rejected traditional politics and developed anextremist approach to implement their agenda. The National Socialists created ideological imperatives that restricteddebate and winnowed policy options, creating inefficiencies and application errors that a broader and more holistic policyapproach would have avoided or mitigated. Liberal democracies must resist the desire to dismiss ideological extremistsas irrational. Rather, liberal democracies must allow that extremist' policy preferences and actions seek to conform in arational manner to their philosophy. The acceptance of rationality on behalf of ideological extremists assists liberaldemocracies to identify and develop strategies to confront them in a forthright and realistic manner.