Ronald Reagan Roundtable: Reagan and the End of the Cold War
Ronald Reagan gave one of his most famous speeches in Berlin in June 1987, the famous one where he invited the Soviet leader of the time to “tear down this wall”. I was in the audience of that speech,...
View ArticleAfghanistan 2050: A Political Watershed
. . . Thus ends our discussion of the military aspects of the Afghan campaign. The political roots of the campaign and how they developed – everyone obviously has their own individual story as to how...
View ArticleXenophon Roundtable: The Building of a Political Community
I had never read Xenophon before and while a great fan of Thucydides, had never spent much time reading ancient Greek – as opposed to Byzantine – history. This was a challenge for me and while I can’t...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, On War, Concluding Remarks
This is possibly the most difficult post yet. How to make a fitting conclusion to this very exceptional work, a work that influences not only military historians, but strategic theorists, military...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, On War, Book VII, Chapters 5 and 22, The Culminating...
There are strategic attacks which have led directly to peace, but these are the minority. Most of them only lead up the point where their remaining strength is just enough to maintain a defense and...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, On War, Book VIII, Chapter 5, “Serious Risk”
The condition for defeating an enemy presupposes great physical or moral superiority or else an extremely enterprising spirit, an inclination for serious risk. When neither of these is present, the...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, On War, Book VIII, Chapter 3B, The Concept of Cohesion
There are many points one could make in connection with Book VIII of On War. As I mentioned in my first post on this roundtable, Clausewitz deals with different types of theory in the book. I have...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, On War, Book VI, Ch 6, Balance of Power
Clausewitz starts off this chapter with an extension of the range of resources that the defender has at his disposal, these in addition to those listed in Chapter 3 as being responsible for defensive...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, On War, Book VI: Chapter 3
Given that there is a lot of material in Book VI worthy of comment, I’ll start with this chapter since it allows us to provide something of a recap of what we have read in On War so far. On page 90 of...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, On War, Book V: General Comments
At first glance, from a general theory perspective, Book V doesn’t offer much, focusing as it does overwhelmingly on the tactical, that is the level of warfare most open to change, most influenced by...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, On War, Book IV (and VI): Contingency
Even the ultimate aim of comtemporary warfare, the political object, cannot always be seen as a single issue. Even if it were, action is subject to such a multitude of conditions and considerations...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz: Book IV, Some Comments
The emphasis for Book IV is the tactical, that is for Clausewitz, “the engagement”. What separates war from other types of social activity is fighting, that is in this context organized violence in...
View ArticleCarl von Clausewitz, Book III, General Comments
Strategy is a very misunderstood concept. Over the last eight years the United States has implemented a number of various strategies which were more the nature of public relations campaigns, attempts...
View ArticleClausewitz, On War, Book 2, Concluding Comments
Time constraints as usual are not allowing me to participate like I would wish to in this fascinating discussion. Just a few comments, a bit disjointed perhaps, but here goes: First, the “tactical...
View ArticleClausewitz, On War, Book 2: Chapter 1 Comments
The probing of the theorist of the moral pretension of the national interest puts him in an awkard position by making him suspect of being indifferent to all truth and morality. This is why there are...
View ArticleClausewitz, On War, Book 1: Closing Comments and Section 28
At this point in what has been a fascinating round table, I think it useful to consider the comment that Sir Michael Howard made during the Clausewitz Conference of 2005, that being that “Clausewitz is...
View ArticleClausewitz, On War, Book 1: Dialectic, but which dialectic?
That Clausewitz used a dialectical approach is well known. Less known is that there are serious questions as to which dialectic(s) Clausewitz was in fact employing. The best known form of the...
View ArticleClausewitz, On War, Book 1 – My introduction, and comments on Chapter 1
Knowing how to start one’s own contribution to this very worthwhile discussion is difficult. Beginning that discussion with Book 1 Chapter 1 of Clausewitz’s On War adds to a very difficult situation...
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