Center of Gravity ...

The center of gravity is a geometric property of any object. The center of gravity is the average location of the weight of an object. We can completely describe the motion of any object through space in terms of the translation of the center of gravity of the object from one place to another, and the rotation of the object about its center of gravity if it is free to rotate.

In battle, Schwerpunkt - the center of gravity - a term used by Carl von Clausewitz - equates to victory whenever a combatant takes control over the COG of any given conflict as the COG is “the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends,”

 Carl von Clausewitz 

10. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack--the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. 

18. All warfare is based on deception. 

19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Sun Tzu - The Art of War

These base concepts discussing how wars are won were woefully ignored by the US in Nam, the Middle East and in Afghanistan as indigenous forces don't have to win, just outlast, something great powers like Alexander the Great, England, Russia and the US seem to just not understand but Frank Herbert, in Dune did, voicing this set of tenets the US should have known about before getting involved in the disastrous misadventures depicted in this article.

CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ and Frank Herbert both understood the power of schwerpunkt. A 19th-century theorist revered among military geeks the way Paul Brown is revered among football coaches, Clausewitz wrote that each war has a center of gravity—which is how schwerpunkt is usually translated—and that victory often flows to the strategist who identifies and seizes it. Depending on the type of conflict, the center of gravity might be an enemy’s logistics base or field army, a nation’s capital, or even an individual (see: Osama bin Laden in the war with al Qaeda). 

In Dune, it’s the spice.