term is applied indifferently. The result is a source of some confusion,
even to the most lucid writers. "The word concentration," says one of the
most recent of them, "evokes the idea of a grouping of forces. We believe,
in fact, that we cannot make war without grouping ships into squadrons and
squadrons into fleets."[11] Here in one sentence the word hovers between
the formation of fleets and their strategical distribution. Similar
looseness will embarrass the student at every turn. At one time he will
find the word used to express the antithesis of division or dispersal of
force; at another, to express strategic deployment, which implies division
to a greater or less extent. He will find it used of the process of
assembling a force, as well as of the state of a force when the process is
complete. The truth is that the term, which is one of the most common and
most necessary in strategical discussion, has never acquired a very precise
meaning, and this lack of precision is one of the commonest causes of
conflicting opinion and questionable judgments. No strategical term indeed
calls more urgently for a clear determination of the ideas for which it
stands.

[11] Daveluy, _L'Esprit de la Guerre Navale_, vol. i, p. 27, note.

Military phraseology, from which the word is taken, employs "concentration"
in three senses. It is used for assembling the units of an army after they
have been mobilised. In this sense, concentration is mainly an
administrative process; logically, it means the complement of the process
of mobilisation, whereby the army realises its war organisation and becomes
ready to take the field. In a second sense it is used for the process of
moving the army when formed, or in process of formation, to the localities
from which operations can best begin. This is a true strategical stage, and
it culminates in what is known as strategic deployment. Finally, it is used
for the ultimate stage when the army so deployed is closed up upon a