The new art of war : the origins, theory, and future of conflict

Many of war's lethal failures are attributable to ignorance caused by a dearth of contemporary, accessible theory to inform warfighting, strategy, and policy. To remedy this problem, Colonel Geoffrey F. Weiss offers an ambitious new survey of war's nature, character, and future in the tradition of Sun Tzu and Clausewitz. He begins by melding philosophical and military concepts to reveal war's origins and to analyze war theory's foundational ideas. Then, leveraging science, philosophy, and the wisdom of war's master theorists, Colonel Weiss presents a genuinely original framework and lexicon that characterizes and clarifies the relationships between humanity, politics, strategy, and combat; explains how and why war changes form; offers a methodology for forecasting future war; and ponders the permanence of war as a human activity. The New Art of War is an indispensable guide for understanding human conflict that will change how we think and communicate about war. "The introduction explains why we should study war. As for how to do this, we turn to Alexander the Great's mentor, Aristotle, who in Posterior Analytics, asserts that understanding something's nature requires that we identify its cause or "why." In Physics and Metaphysics, he says that this "why" can be expressed as four "causes:" (1) "material" (substance); (2) "formal" (appearance); (3) "efficient" (source); and (4) "final" (purpose). For example, a statue's material cause is bronze; its formal cause is the shape; its efficient cause is the artisan and her technique; and its final cause is the satisfaction inspired by the work of art. The "why" of a statue, therefore, is be-"cause" the artisan (efficient) molded it from bronze (material) into a shape (formal) that elicits admiration (final).2 Applying this technique to war yields a material cause (the "stuff" of war), war's physical components; formal cause (war's form), force arrangement and interactions informed by tactics and doctrine; efficient cause (generally, humanity; specifically, warriors), the author of war within whom dwells the will to fight; and lastly, a final cause (the war's purpose), what war seeks to achieve"-- Provided by publisher List of Figures Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Why Study War? 1 The Origins of War 2 The Masters of War Theory and Strategy 3 Small Wars and Domain Theory 4 The Unified War Theory 5 The Future of War Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index