Joint Operation Planning ( JP 5-0 ), clearly states the critical role of COG analysis: “The most important task confronting campaign planners in this process is being able to identify friendly and adversary strategic centers of gravity; that is, the sources of strength, power, and resistance.”The reason identifying centers of gravity is the most important task is because a “faulty analysis of friendly or adversary centers of gravity can have very serious consequences; specifically, the inability to accomplish the military objectives at an acceptable cost and the unconscionable expenditure of lives, time, and materiel in efforts that do not produce decisive strategic or operational results.
Understanding Centers of Gravity and Critical Vulnerabilities: What Clausewitz (Really) meant by Center of Gravity by Dr. Joe Strange, USMC War College and Colonel Richard Iron, UK Army
The CG-CC-CR-CV Construct: A Useful Tool to Understand and Analyze the Relationship between Centers of Gravity and their Critical Vulnerabilities by Dr. Joe Strange, USMC War College and Colonel Richard Iron, UK Army
Center of Gravity Analysis by Colonel Dale E. Eikmeier, U. S. Army
Center of Gravity and Asymmetric Conflict: Factoring in Culture. John W. Jandora, Joint Forces Quarterly, Issue 39, 4th Quarter, p. 78-83, 2005.
A New COIN Center-of-Gravity Analysis by Colonel Peter R. Mansoor, and Major Mark S. Ulrich, U.S. Army