The Essence of War: Clausewitz as Educator - The Chronicle Review - The Chroni... - The Diigo Meta page

• 12 Oct 09
  

  ognjen s

  clausewitz books

• 08 Aug 09
  

  Dione Wang

  clausewitz war

  • Clausewitz (1780-1831) studied total war. Although he knew nothing of tanks, air
    forces, or satellite communications, he knew from combat how wars kill, confuse,
    and terrify. In war studies, expertise matters enormously; he had plenty.
  • On War appeals to anyone who wants to see how a general thinks, and to
    all who suppose that warcraft applies to an office, company, college, or team.
    Clausewitz himself compared war with commerce and alliances with "a business
    deal."
  • 6 more annotations...
  • • probing analysis of Napoleon's campaigns: their tendency toward unrestrained
      violence, the vital importance of leadership, the role of chance, the role of
      politics, and the calamities of an invasion like the Russian campaign of 1812.
    • From Napolean's failure in Spain, Clausewitz learned that to counter terror with
      greater terror only makes more enemies.
    • Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century shows that On War is no
      longer exclusively a military province reserved for officers and veterans. It
      attracts historians, philosophers, and political scientists. With its fatal
      topic, its textual problems, its style, and its brave ambitions, On War
      should soon entice literary scholars as well.

    • Clausewitz's most quoted remark, "War is merely the continuation of politics
      by other means," remains central to debates about his continuing relevance.
      However much wars are alike, they differ as the politics that support them
      differ—and the relations between war and politics are seldom static. Clausewitz
      wrote, "Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions, and its
      own peculiar preconceptions. Each period, therefore, would have held to its own
      theory of war."

    • He reacted against a mode of theorizing that aspired to imitate geometric and
      mechanical sciences. "Theory cannot equip the mind with formulas for solving
      problems," he warned, "nor can it mark the narrow path on which the sole
      solution is supposed to lie by planting a hedge of principles on either side.
      But it can give the mind insight into the great mass of phenomena and their
      relationships, then leave it free to rise into the higher realms of action."

    • the importance of thinking over doctrine; and second, he believed that such
      thinking could be taught.

Would you like to comment?

Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.