The Art of War Was Written by Napoleon Bonaparte Robert E Lee Sun Tzu Antoinehenry Jomini

Strategy

Beatrice Heuser

• LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2017
• Last MODIFIED: 06 February 2012
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0057

Introduction

The term strategy is difficult to define and to circumscribe. It was not used in the Occident until the tardily 18th century, and since then its meaning has changed considerably. Today, strategy is largely taken to mean, in its original armed forces-political context, a comprehensive plan in pursuit of political ends, including the threat or actual use of force, in a dialectic of wills between at to the lowest degree two sides in a conflict. These sides interact; thus, a strategy volition rarely be successful if it shows no adaptability. This bibliography volition not consider the at present more pop apply of the term strategy to refer merely to a circuitous program in whatever walk of life. Strategy, in the same definition, can be taken to be either theoretical—with war in general in mind or a specific situation—or applied. Few applied strategic concepts have survived from earlier times, because for many centuries practitioners made exercise without writing them down. Once strategic concepts were generated systematically past governments, they were invariably compromise documents drawn upwardly jointly past a number of actors, which usually deprived them of the coherence found in nearly of the single-authored theoretical works. Moreover, practical strategic concepts (or strategic concepts fatigued upwards in times of peace for the eventuality of war) are frequently defective in explicit articulation of the reasons why certain courses of action are preferred. Because they were more readily attainable, theoretical works accept enjoyed more scholarly attention than has the fragmentary evidence we have of applied strategic concepts throughout history. Practical strategic concepts, in so far as these existed or can exist surmised from circumstantial show (due east.g., the Schlieffen Plan), will exist discussed under other Oxford Bibliographies articles relating to individual wars.

General Overviews

The two most illuminating works on warfare through the ages are Delbrück 1975–1985, a four-book survey from antiquity to the author's own times, and Chaliand 1994, a reader containing excerpts from central texts, both from Europe and other areas of the earth, again from artifact to the author's ain times. Besides illustrating how war was prepared for and fought in practice, both deal with the art of war, emphasizing links with political, economical, social, or ideological (including religious) aims transcending narrowly military machine ones. This nexus is fundamental to what would afterward be called strategy, fifty-fifty though the discussion did non feature in Western literature before the belatedly 18th century. Liddell Hart 1967 (originally published in 1929) prepared the ground for a quantum leap in English-linguistic communication writing about strategy by seeking out recurring patterns for success in state of war. The edited volumes Earle 1944 and Paret 1986, both consciously with the same championship, anachronistically just justifiably employ the term strategy retrospectively, to describe the works of the slap-up writers on state of war in modernistic European history; they have divers the subject for generations to come, and several contributions in these 2 volumes accept non been bettered. Chaliand 1994, Earle 1944, and Paret 1986 should be essential reading for any course on strategy. Kennedy 1991 is a collection of invaluable example studies beyond Western history. Heuser 2010 complements these collections in offer in the form of a monograph a total narrative of the development of thinking on strategy in its cultural-ideological context. Handel 1996, again essential reading on which generations of U.s.a. officers were raised, contains great insights but is express by the author'south ahistorical approach. Baylis, et al. 2007 is a widely used teaching aid for beginners, useful also for distance learning.

• Baylis, John, James Wirtz, Colin S. Gray, and Eliot Cohen, eds. Strategy in the Contemporary Globe: An Introduction to Strategic Studies. second ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Printing, 2007.

  NNNThe most useful handbook for an instructor new to the subject who is education a Strategy 101 course, with short texts covering aspects from theoretical and historical to gimmicky and useful bibliographies.

• Chaliand, Gérard, ed. The Fine art of War in World History: From Antiquity to the Nuclear Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

  NNNThe best anthology of texts dealing with war, containing approximately fourscore excerpts, ranging from the Egyptian Kadesh inscription of c. 1300 BCE to the nuclear strategists of the 20th century, some translated into English hither for the first time.

• Delbrück, Hans. The History of the Art of War within the Framework of Political History. 4 vols. Translated by Walter J. Renfroe Jr. Contributions in Military History. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1975–1985.

  NNNVolume 4 originally published in 1920, in German. Delbrück's last volume addresses the evolution of strategic thought, little of which had existed in medieval times, other than in the course of reiterations of Vegetius and concerns about restraints on state of war. Nosotros find allusions to Delbrück'south bugbear (fully developed in Die Strategie des Perikles [1890])—that at that place are mainly ii forms of war, one focusing on the wearisome compunction of the enemy'southward armed forces and the other on a decisive battle of annihilation.

• Earle, Edward Mead, ed. Makers of Modern Strategy: Armed services Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Academy Press, 1944.

  NNNPublished during World State of war Ii, this volume conveys an acute sense of the relevance of by thinking to very real bug of the present. In add-on to Earle's introduction, the articles by Felix Gilbert (on Machiavelli), Hans Rothfels (on Clausewitz), Jean Gottmann (on Bugeaud, Galliéni, Lyautey), and Gordon Craig (on Delbrück) are however points of reference.

• Handel, Michael I. Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought. 2d ed. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1996.

  NNNExamination of the writings of Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, and others. Very good on extrapolating general reflections on war, just without any attempt to reach a more thorough understanding of the texts by studying the apply of language in its historical context.

• Heuser, Beatrice. The Evolution of Strategy: Thinking War from Antiquity to the Present. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

  NNNSurvey of the evolution of thinking about warfare and its political aims from late Roman times. Shows how later centuries of a more balanced approach, the Napoleonic prototype introduced a long catamenia of obsession with victory at the expense of fruitful peace settlements.

• Kennedy, Paul. M Strategies in State of war and Peace. New Oasis, CT: Yale Academy Press, 1991.

  NNNCollection of articles showing how comprehensive yard strategy has been in case studies ranging from ancient Rome to the Cold War, invariably including economic dimensions, alliance dimensions, considerations of domestic politics, and many other factors. Includes particularly interesting contributions by Dennis E. Showalter and Douglas Porch.

• Liddell Hart, Basil Henry. The Strategy of Indirect Approach. London: Faber and Faber, 1967.

  NNNOriginally published in 1929 as The Decisive Wars of History (London: Bell and Sons). This particular narrative of history is that wars take tended to end successfully for the side that sought to maximize its own strength by attacking an antagonist not head-on just indirectly, exploiting weaknesses and using surprise and stratagems. The dichotomy of direct versus indirect arroyo recalls Delbrück'due south compunction versus annihilation.

• Paret, Peter, ed. Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Academy Printing, 1986.

  NNNThis volume consciously updates Earle 1944, retaining some of the earlier articles while adding new chapters on such topics equally nuclear strategy (Lawrence Freedman), the American manner of war (Russell F. Weigley), and Soviet doctrine (Condoleezza Rice).

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