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H106: Explaining the Revolution - Clausewitz

H106: Explaining the Revolution - Clausewitz. Clausewitz Career Outline. 1780: Born 1792: Joined Prussian Army 1793: Served w/ Duke of Brunswick’s Army of Rhine 1801: Admitted to Berlin Military Academy 1804: Adjutant to Prince August 1806: Participated Jena-Auerstadt; captured

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H106: Explaining the Revolution - Clausewitz

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  1. H106: Explaining the Revolution - Clausewitz

  2. Clausewitz Career Outline 1780: Born 1792: Joined Prussian Army 1793: Served w/ Duke of Brunswick’s Army of Rhine 1801: Admitted to Berlin Military Academy 1804: Adjutant to Prince August 1806: Participated Jena-Auerstadt; captured 1806-07: Prisoner, France 1809: DCS in Ministry of War 1812: Entered Russian service; participated Moscow campaign 1813: CoS in Allied Army 1814-15: CoS, Prussian III Corps 1818-30: Director, War Academy 1830-31: Inspector of Arty; CoS to Gneisenau 1831: Died of cholera, age 51

  3. Some of Clausewitz’ Major Concepts • Relationship of Politics and War • Absolute vs Actual War • Paradoxical Trinity • Friction • Chance • Genius • Psychology • Defense As the Stronger Form of War

  4. What is war? “War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.”

  5. “Absolute War” • Isolated act • Instantaneous • All force used • Outcome predetermined • Result final and lasting

  6. First Step in Strategy “The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and the commander have to make is to establish by that test the kind of war on which they are embarking; neither mistaking it for, nor trying to turn it into, something that is alien to its nature. This is the first of all strategic questions and the most comprehensive.”

  7. Most (Mis)Quoted Idea “War is merely the continuation of policy by other means ...” “The political object is the goal, war the means of reaching it, and means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose.”

  8. Paradoxical Trinity “As a total phenomenon its dominant tendencies always make war a paradoxical trinity composed of primordial violence, hatred and enmity, which are to be regarded as a blind natural force; of the play of chance and probability within which the creative spirit is free to roam; and an element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to reason alone. … The first of these three aspects mainly concerns the people, the second the commander and his army; the third the government.”

  9. Clausewitz’s Paradoxical Trinity Rational Policy (Government) “War is as if suspended between three magnets.” WAR Non-Rational Irrational Probability (Army) Passion (People)

  10. “War, however, is not the action of a living force upon a lifeless mass (total nonresistance would be no war at all) but always the collision of two living forces... Thus I am not in control: he [my enemy] dictates to me as much as I dictate to him.” War and Control

  11. Nature of War • Fog (Uncertainty) • Fear (Danger) • Fatigue (Exertion) • Friction (Chance)

  12. Clausewitz’s Influence “Victory alone breaks the will of the enemy and compels him to submit to ours. It is not the occupation of a slice of territory or the capture of a fortress but the destruction of the enemy forces that will decide the outcome of the war. This destruction thus constitutes the principal object of operations.” - Helmut von Moltke

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