Clausewitz's Timeless Trinity

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

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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

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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: A Very Short Introduction

Clausewitz: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Michael Howard
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191604488
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
Karl von Clausewitz's study On War was described by the American strategic thinker Bernard Brodie as 'not simply the greatest, but the only great book about war'. It is hard to disagree. Even though he wrote his only major work at a time when the range of firearms was fifty yards, much of what he had to say remains relevant today. Michael Howard explains Clausewitz's ideas in terms both of his experiences as a professional soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, and of the intellectual background of his time. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Securing India's Future in the New Millennium

Securing India's Future in the New Millennium PDF Author: Brahma Chellaney
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
ISBN: 9788125017219
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 652

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Book Description
The first comprehensive study of the different facets of India s national security, the book looks ahead at the challenges of the coming years. India s leading experts on strategic affairs, including seven advisers to the National Security Council examine the tasks that lie ahead. This book is designed to initiate a wider public debate on those challenges and opportunities and help India develop a strategic culture and an institutionalised, integrated approach to national security.

Clausewitz and African War

Clausewitz and African War PDF Author: Isabelle Duyvesteyn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135764840
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Oil, diamonds, timber, food aid - just some of the suggestions put forward as explanations for African wars in the past decade. Another set of suggestions focuses on ethnic and clan considerations. These economic and ethnic or clan explanations contend that wars are specifically not fought by states for political interests with mainly conventional military means, as originally suggested by Carl von Clausewitz in the 19th century. This study shows how alternative social organizations to the state can be viewed as political actors using war as a political instrument.

War, Clausewitz and the Trinity

War, Clausewitz and the Trinity PDF Author: Dr Thomas Waldman
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409474119
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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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.

The Art of War in an Asymmetric World

The Art of War in an Asymmetric World PDF Author: Barry Scott Zellen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441120998
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
The work examines the rise of the movements against globalization, modernization, and Western dominance that followed the collapse of the bipolar world and the end of the Cold War and that culminated with today's global jihadist movements. It describes how the U.S. had to adapt to this new, asymmetrical world of conflict with its strategic, doctrinal and theoretical responses to the threats of terrorism and insurgency that defined the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Unique in the breadth of its scope, the book connects movements from the Zapatista uprising to Al Qaeda's global jihad within a broader historical framework, connecting pre and post-9/11 conflicts under the unifying theme of a struggle against the forces of modernization. Featuring the works of key theorists such as John Arquilla, Thomas P.M. Barnett, Arthur K. Cebrowski, Jim Gant, Samuel P. Huntington, Robert D. Kaplan, David J. Kilcullen, William H. McRaven, and David Ronfeldt, this book bridges the fields of counterinsurgency, homeland security, counterterrorism, cyberwarfare, and technology of war, and will be a must-read for academics, policymakers and strategists.

Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals

Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description


Castles, Battles, & Bombs

Castles, Battles, & Bombs PDF Author: Jurgen Brauer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226071650
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
Castles, Battles, and Bombs reconsiders key episodes of military history from the point of view of economics—with dramatically insightful results. For example, when looked at as a question of sheer cost, the building of castles in the High Middle Ages seems almost inevitable: though stunningly expensive, a strong castle was far cheaper to maintain than a standing army. The authors also reexamine the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II and provide new insights into France’s decision to develop nuclear weapons. Drawing on these examples and more, Brauer and Van Tuyll suggest lessons for today’s military, from counterterrorist strategy and military manpower planning to the use of private military companies in Afghanistan and Iraq. "In bringing economics into assessments of military history, [the authors] also bring illumination. . . . [The authors] turn their interdisciplinary lens on the mercenary arrangements of Renaissance Italy; the wars of Marlborough, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon; Grant's campaigns in the Civil War; and the strategic bombings of World War II. The results are invariably stimulating."—Martin Walker, Wilson Quarterly "This study is serious, creative, important. As an economist I am happy to see economics so professionally applied to illuminate major decisions in the history of warfare."—Thomas C. Schelling, Winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics

The Religious Aspects of War in the Ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome

The Religious Aspects of War in the Ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome PDF Author: Krzysztof Ulanowski
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004324763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
The Religious Aspect of Warfare in the Ancient Near East, Greece and Rome is a volume dedicated to investigating the relationship between religion and war in antiquity in minute detail. The nineteen chapters are divided into three groups: the ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome. They are presented in turn and all possible aspects of warfare and its religious connections are investigated. The contributors focus on the theology of war, the role of priests in warfare, natural phenomena as signs for military activity, cruelty, piety, the divinity of humans in specific martial cases, rituals of war, iconographical representations and symbols of war, and even the archaeology of war. As editor Krzysztof Ulanowski invited both well-known specialists such as Robert Parker, Nicholas Sekunda, and Pietro Mander to contribute, as well as many young, talented scholars with fresh ideas. From this polyphony of voices, perspectives and opinions emerges a diverse, but coherent, representation of the complex relationship between religion and war in antiquity.

Transformation of War

Transformation of War PDF Author: Martin Van Creveld
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439188890
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
At a time when unprecedented change in international affairs is forcing governments, citizens, and armed forces everywhere to re-assess the question of whether military solutions to political problems are possible any longer, Martin van Creveld has written an audacious searching examination of the nature of war and of its radical transformation in our own time. For 200 years, military theory and strategy have been guided by the Clausewitzian assumption that war is rational - a reflection of national interest and an extension of politics by other means. However, van Creveld argues, the overwhelming pattern of conflict in the post-1945 world no longer yields fully to rational analysis. In fact, strategic planning based on such calculations is, and will continue to be, unrelated to current realities. Small-scale military eruptions around the globe have demonstrated new forms of warfare with a different cast of characters - guerilla armies, terrorists, and bandits - pursuing diverse goals by violent means with the most primitive to the most sophisticated weapons. Although these warriors and their tactics testify to the end of conventional war as we've known it, the public and the military in the developed world continue to contemplate organized violence as conflict between the super powers. At this moment, armed conflicts of the type van Creveld describes are occurring throughout the world. From Lebanon to Cambodia, from Sri Lanka and the Philippines to El Salvador, the Persian Gulf, and the strife-torn nations of Eastern Europe, violent confrontations confirm a new model of warfare in which tribal, ethnic, and religious factions do battle without high-tech weapons or state-supported armies and resources. This low-intensity conflict challenges existing distinctions between civilian and solder, individual crime and organized violence, terrorism and war. In the present global atmosphere, practices that for three centuries have been considered uncivilized, such as capturing civilians or even entire communities for ransom, have begun to reappear. Pursuing bold and provocative paths of inquiry, van Creveld posits the inadequacies of our most basic ideas as to who fights wars and why and broaches the inevitability of man's need to "play" at war. In turn brilliant and infuriating, this challenge to our thinking and planning current and future military encounters is one of the most important books on war we are likely to read in our lifetime.