He was a staunch supporter of the French Offensive Doctrine, developed primarily by Ferdinand Foch, his instructor at the Saint-Cyr Military Academy who later was supreme commander of Allied forces on the Western Front (World War I). Following his appointment as a Chief of Staff, he made immediate changes to Ottoman military doctrine which had been created by Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (Goltz Pasha), the German officer who had been in charge of the reorganisation and training of the Ottoman Army. Goltz Pasha's doctrine dictated that, in case of war with Balkan states, Ottoman forces would remain on the defensive, both on the western (Vardar) and eastern (Thracian) approaches.