Clausewitz's Puzzle: The Political Theory of War
Andreas Herberg-Rothe
Abstract
This book argues that Clausewitz developed a wide-ranging political theory of war by reflecting not only on the success, but also on the limitations and the failure of Napoleon's method of waging war. Successes, failures, and defeats of Napoleon forced Clausewitz to reflect on questions that went beyond purely military matters and led him to develop a political theory of war. Analyses of three paradigmatic campaigns — which are symbolized by Jena, Moscow, and Waterloo — are placed at the center of understanding surrounding Clausewitz's On War and it's inherent problems, like the relation of ab ... More
This book argues that Clausewitz developed a wide-ranging political theory of war by reflecting not only on the success, but also on the limitations and the failure of Napoleon's method of waging war. Successes, failures, and defeats of Napoleon forced Clausewitz to reflect on questions that went beyond purely military matters and led him to develop a political theory of war. Analyses of three paradigmatic campaigns — which are symbolized by Jena, Moscow, and Waterloo — are placed at the center of understanding surrounding Clausewitz's On War and it's inherent problems, like the relation of absolute and real war, theory and practice, the primacy of politics, the enigma of the first chapter, and the dialectics of attack and defense. Clausewitz's analysis of these war campaigns are the cornerstones of On War and redounded to the ‘wondrous trinity’, which is the basis for a general theory of war and which is quite different from the so-called trinitarian war.
Keywords:
political theory,
war campaigns,
wondrous trinity,
trinitarian war,
dialectical approach,
absolute,
real war,
defense,
attack,
primacy of politics
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199202690 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2007 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199202690.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Andreas Herberg-Rothe, author
Private Lecturer, Institute for Social Sciences, Humboldt-University Berlin
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