The Theory of Dynamic Adaptive Warfare (TDAW): Genesis and Architecture of a New Theory of War

This preprint presents the comprehensive article-length formulation of the Theory of Dynamic Adaptive Warfare (TDAW), originally developed in Portuguese as the Teoria da Guerra Dinâmica Adaptativa (TGDA). Conceived as a post-classical theory of war, TDAW addresses the explanatory fragmentation that arises when contemporary conflict is examined through isolated military, strategic, economic, informational, technological, or legal perspectives. The theory is grounded in three foundational intellectual domains: War Theory, Game Theory, and International Law. Their integration gives rise to the Force–Decision–Norm architecture, through which conflict is understood as a dynamic, adaptive, multidomain, and legally conditioned process involving reciprocal strategic interaction under uncertainty. The article develops the intellectual genealogy of the theory, its foundational architecture, strategic adaptation, domain migration, and the concept of conditional predictability. It also explains how force, strategic decision, normativity, legitimacy, technology, information, economic coercion, and temporal adaptation interact in contemporary warfare without reducing war to kinetic combat or treating prediction as deterministic. The formulation is intended to provide a coherent theoretical architecture for strategic studies, international security, international law, and contemporary warfare while offering concepts and propositions capable of comparative, historical, and empirical examination.