Saturday, October 10, 2020

For Those Who Enjoy Reading Clausewitz

“The Kremlin is on fire!” Napoleon watching the fire of Moscow from the walls of the Kremlin. (Vasily Vereshchagin/Wikimedia) 

  Christopher Saunders, Strategy Bridge: Logic and Grammar: Clausewitz and the Language of War

INTRODUCTION 

In Book One of On War, Clausewitz introduces the concept of war as “merely the continuation of policy by other means.”[2] This most famous of Clausewitz’s dictums introduces a critical perspective of war as both a tool of grand strategy that is dominated by politics, but also as something that is inherently temporal.[3] War cannot readily be decoupled or isolated from the higher policy context that triggers it, runs through it, and continues after the guns fall silent. This perspective is developed in Book Eight under the assertion that “war is an instrument of policy,” and this provides the opening quote and focus of this article.[4] Book Eight explores the concept of war plans; here Clausewitz draws together the threads of war and policy to weave his observations on the relationship between policy (the logic) and the conduct (or grammar) of war.[5] 

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WNU Editor: You can download (for free) the following ebooks by Clausewitz at the link: 



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