On War

Most theoretical works on war claim to instruct their readers about how to wage war. With the result that, especially in modern times when technology is racing ahead, quickly becomes out of date. By contrast, Clausewitz, a student of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, all but ignores technology. Instead he focuses on two cardinal questions: what war is, and what it is waged for. From this, using reality to check on theory and theory to check on reality, he proceeds step by step. Many of his conclusions, e.g “war is a duel on an extended scale means.” “The best strategy is… show more.

Contrary to expectations of heavy reading, the work is presented in digestible short chunks, especially in this abridged version which skips all the dated parts. Clausewitz’s work is so outstanding because he started with a (relatively) clean slate, aiming to reach a better understanding of what drives war in general, rather than, as most of his predecessors, to write “how to” manuals. Clausewitz died of cholera before he could finish revising it – as he had changed his mind about a fundamental question: was all future warfare going to be like Napoleonic War? When he had set out to write,… show more.