Clausewitz's Timeless Trinity

Clausewitz's Timeless Trinity PDF Author: Colin M. Fleming
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317165225
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first book to apply the Clausewitzian Trinity of 'passion, chance, and reason' to the experience of real war. It explores the depth and validity of the concept against the conflicts of former Yugoslavia - wars thought to epitomise a post-Clausewitzian age. In doing so it demonstrates the timeless message of the Trinity, but also ties the Trinitarian idea back into Clausewitz's political argument. Intended to build on the existing corpus of scholarship, this book differs from the existing literature in two ways. By applying the Trinity to the wars of former Yugoslavia 1991-1995, it explores war at its micro-foundations, assessing the complex cause-and-effect nexus of reciprocity produced by actions between belligerents embroiled in dynamic competition perpetuated by their own interaction. Providing valuable insights into the complexities of real war fuelled by passion, undermined by chance, and shaped by reason, it is the first study to bridge the Clausewitzian world of theory with real experience. Examining each part of the triad separately, the book explores the multiple manifestations of hostility and chance, before then assessing the influence of these elements on the policies of the belligerents as the war evolved.

Clausewitz's Timeless Trinity

Clausewitz's Timeless Trinity PDF Author: Colin M. Fleming
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317165217
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first book to apply the Clausewitzian Trinity of 'passion, chance, and reason' to the experience of real war. It explores the depth and validity of the concept against the conflicts of former Yugoslavia - wars thought to epitomise a post-Clausewitzian age. In doing so it demonstrates the timeless message of the Trinity, but also ties the Trinitarian idea back into Clausewitz's political argument. Intended to build on the existing corpus of scholarship, this book differs from the existing literature in two ways. By applying the Trinity to the wars of former Yugoslavia 1991-1995, it explores war at its micro-foundations, assessing the complex cause-and-effect nexus of reciprocity produced by actions between belligerents embroiled in dynamic competition perpetuated by their own interaction. Providing valuable insights into the complexities of real war fuelled by passion, undermined by chance, and shaped by reason, it is the first study to bridge the Clausewitzian world of theory with real experience. Examining each part of the triad separately, the book explores the multiple manifestations of hostility and chance, before then assessing the influence of these elements on the policies of the belligerents as the war evolved.

Clausewitz's Timeless Trinity

Clausewitz's Timeless Trinity PDF Author: Colin M. Fleming
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317165225
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first book to apply the Clausewitzian Trinity of 'passion, chance, and reason' to the experience of real war. It explores the depth and validity of the concept against the conflicts of former Yugoslavia - wars thought to epitomise a post-Clausewitzian age. In doing so it demonstrates the timeless message of the Trinity, but also ties the Trinitarian idea back into Clausewitz's political argument. Intended to build on the existing corpus of scholarship, this book differs from the existing literature in two ways. By applying the Trinity to the wars of former Yugoslavia 1991-1995, it explores war at its micro-foundations, assessing the complex cause-and-effect nexus of reciprocity produced by actions between belligerents embroiled in dynamic competition perpetuated by their own interaction. Providing valuable insights into the complexities of real war fuelled by passion, undermined by chance, and shaped by reason, it is the first study to bridge the Clausewitzian world of theory with real experience. Examining each part of the triad separately, the book explores the multiple manifestations of hostility and chance, before then assessing the influence of these elements on the policies of the belligerents as the war evolved.

War, Clausewitz and the Trinity

War, Clausewitz and the Trinity PDF Author: Thomas Waldman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317000463
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book Here

Book Description
Today, the ideas of Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) are employed almost ubiquitously in strategic studies, military history and defence literatures, but often in a manner which distorts their true meaning. In this book, Waldman explores Clausewitz’s central theoretical device for understanding war - the ’remarkable trinity’ of politics, chance and passion. By situating the great Prussian in historical context, he presents a conception truer to Clausewitz’s intention. Seeking to achieve this through an in-depth reinterpretation of On War and Clausewitz’s other writings, conducted through the prism of the trinity, this book draws on existing studies but argues that there is room for clarification. It presents fresh perspectives into aspects of Clausewitz's thought and emphasises elements of his theory that have often been neglected. Furthermore, it provides a solid basis from which debate on the nature of modern war can move forward.

Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century

Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century PDF Author: Hew Strachan
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191647624
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
Clausewitz's On War has, at least until very recently, been regarded as the most important work of theory on its subject. But since the end of the Cold War in 1990, and even more since the 9/11 attacks on the United states in 2001, an increasing number of commentators have argued that On War has lost its analytical edge as a tool for understanding war. They have argued that Clausewitz was concerned solely with inter-state war and with properly defined armies, and that the sorts of conflicts which he discussed are therefore part of a historical pattern which dominated Europe between 1648, the end of the Thirty Years War, and 1990 itself. Some have gone further, and suggested that Clausewitz's best known aphorism, that war is a continuation of policy by other means, is not only irrelevant today but also inapplicable historically. Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century reconsiders the principal themes in Clausewitz's writings from a contemporary perspective, and finds in them much more inspiration and insight than these generalisations allow. Embracing the perspectives of history, philosophy and political science, the book reconsiders both the text and its current implications. Traditional interpretations of On War are put into fresh light; neglected passages are re-examined; and new insights are derived from the conjunction between Clausewitz's text and today's challenges. This book is a project of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.

Clausewitzian Trinity

Clausewitzian Trinity PDF Author: Jack F. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : War (Philosophy)
Languages : en
Pages : 49

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Clausewitzian Trinity in the Early Days of the Third Millenium

The Clausewitzian Trinity in the Early Days of the Third Millenium PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12

Get Book Here

Book Description
"War is ... a wonderful trinity, composed of the original violence of its elements, hatred and animosity, which may be looked upon as blind instinct; of the play of probabilities and chance, which make it a free activity of the soul; and of the subordinate nature of a political instrument, by which it belongs purely to the reason." Carl Von Clausewitz wrote this famous definition of the nature of "real war" in the early 1800's and the meaning and implications of this definition have been vigorously discussed by political and military strategists ever since. Continuing this tradition, I assert the contemporary validity of the Clausewitzian definition of the nature of war by highlighting its timelessness and broad applicability to all forms of human conflict. Secondly, I graphically present an alternative intellectual model of the trinity designed to increase the trinity's objective validity when examining the wider context of contemporary conflict in advance of war. Finally, I close by more generally applying the alternative Clausewitzian model to a validation of administration policy on International Public Information as documented in Presidential Decision Directive 68.

The Clausewitzian Trinity in the Information Age: A Just War Approach

The Clausewitzian Trinity in the Information Age: A Just War Approach PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 35

Get Book Here

Book Description
Clausewitz's "remarkable trinity" has long been a touchstone for military realist discourse. Similarly, the just war tradition has long been a touchstone for moral discourse relating to war. Although these touchstones represent two intellectual traditions which may appear to have little or nothing in common, the 21st-century strategist or policymaker must take into account the imperatives of both traditions. This is so because, in the Information Age, public reactions to perceived moral shortcomings associated with the decision to go to war, or with perceived moral lapses on the battlefield, can significantly disrupt the balance that the "remarkable trinity" requires. Accordingly, this study takes as its task to propose a model that accommodates both military realist and just war concerns. It examines two popular interpretations of Clausewitz's "remarkable trinity." It then examines two much older trinitarian social models, which it uses as guides to discover what a model of the convergence of military realist and just war thought might look like. It then proposes a revised model of the "remarkable trinity" that accommodates just war concerns. It concludes with some reflections on contemporary applications of the model, especially as they relate to the instruments of national power.

Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Clausewitzian Friction and Future War PDF Author: Barry D. Watts
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 0788146173
Category : Entropy (Information theory)
Languages : en
Pages : 145

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the end of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, there has been growing discussion of the possibility that technological advances in the means of combat would produce ftmdamental changes in how future wars will be fought. A number of observers have suggested that the nature of war itself would be transformed. Some proponents of this view have gone so far as to predict that these changes would include great reductions in, if not the outright elimination of, the various impediments to timely and effective action in war for which the Prussian theorist and soldier Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) introduced the term "friction." Friction in war, of course, has a long historical lineage. It predates Clausewitz by centuries and has remained a stubbornly recurring factor in combat outcomes right down to the 1991 Gulf War. In looking to the future, a seminal question is whether Clausewitzian friction would succumb to the changes in leading-edge warfare that may lie ahead, or whether such impediments reflect more enduring aspects of war that technology can but marginally affect. It is this question that the present essay will examine.

Clausewitz

Clausewitz PDF Author: Donald Stoker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019935796X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 377

Get Book Here

Book Description
Carl von Clausewitz's masterwork, On War, is generally considered the greatest text on military theory ever written. Clausewitz is a touchstone for the field today, and is read by scholars, students, and military personnel around the world. And yet to Clausewitz himself, far more important than achieving recognition for his scholarly and theoretical contributions was achieving glory on the field of battle-winning renown not with his pen but with his sword. Military historian Donald Stoker's perceptive biography of Carl von Clausewitz moves skillfully between Clausewitz's career as a soldier and his work as a theoretician and author, exploring the composition of On War and other works while also emphasizing the many military engagements in which Clausewitz fought. Though Clausewitz certainly spilled his share of ink, he also spilled blood--his as well as that of the enemy. As an officer in the Prussian army, Clausewitz fought in battles from Jena-Auerstedt to Waterloo, as well as the battle of Borodino while serving the Russians. Stoker takes readers through the heat of these battles, providing historical overview and discussing each engagement in detail. Rich context is provided by Clausewitz himself, who wrote abundant letters to his wife and friends throughout his life, and from which Stoker draws extensively. Clausewitz argues for the centrality of Clausewitz's work as a soldier, but it does not neglect his historical achievements in military theory. Stoker unpacks each of Clausewitz's significant works, considering their influences and describing the circumstances around their composition. The interplay between the biographical details of Clausewitz's life and the arguments put forth in his written works allows for a deeper understanding of these familiar texts, and Stoker's insightful commentary adds depth to the discussion. The result is an absorbing reassessment of both the man and his legacy, and a significant contribution to the study of Clausewitz and his place in today's military and political landscape.

The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set

The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set PDF Author: Carl von Clausewitz
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1995

Get Book Here

Book Description
E-artnow presents to you this meticulously edited collection of the greatest military strategy books in history: On War (Carl von Clausewitz) Maxims of War (Napoleon Bonaparte) Battle Studies (Ardant du Picq) Guerrilla Warfare (Ernesto Che Guevara) The Book of War (Wu Qi) The Art of War (Sun Tzu) The Analects: The Book of Leadership (Confucius) Arthashastra: The Ancient Indian Book on Wisdom and Strategy (Kautilya) Strategemata: The Manual of Military Tactics (Sextus Julius Frontinus) De re military: Organization of the Roman Army and Battle Tactics (Publius Vegetius Renatus) The Art of War (Niccolò Machiavelli) Small Wars Manual: The Strategy of Military Operations (US Marine Corps)