Monday
27 September 1999
0830-1130 (LS)
Only study of the past can give us a sense of reality, and show us how the soldier will fight in the future.
Ardant du Picq
Introduction:
A course in military thought and strategy requires careful study of our intellectual past. The patterns of thought concerning warfare that have evolved over the past two centuries continue to shape the way we think today, in ways often not recognized. To understand who or what we are today and the direction in which we are likely to go in the future, we need to understand clearly from whence we have come.
As relative newcomers to the history of world civilization, Americans must go well beyond our shores in search of our intellectual heritage. We are most heavily indebted to our European ancestors for that heritage, although certainly Asians have influenced us as well. We have also, in our relatively short span of history, made our own significant contribution to the evolution of military thought. For example, in just the last 100 years, Alfred Thayer Mahan, William Mitchell, and a host of nuclear theorists have had a significant influence on the way the rest of the world thinks about and employs military power. That trend has continued today with such American notions as "information warfare" and "dominant maneuver."
Our principal concern in this course is the evolution of modern military theory and strategy. We begin our study with the period from 1789-1815, the time of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, which were major watersheds in the evolution of warfare. Yet to understand fully the changes emerging during that period and their corresponding impact on military theory, we must briefly review the evolution of European warfare over the previous century-and-a-half. That is the purpose of this topic: to lay the groundwork for our critical analysis of modern military thought.
The lecture for this topic will focus on the principal stages in the evolution of European warfare from about 1600 to 1789. The aim will be to give you a clear understanding of war's character-that is, who fought and why-and conduct-how war was fought-on the eve of the French Revolution. In the seminar following, we will discuss war's impact on society, and the variety of influences that shaped war during the century-and-a-half leading to the French Revolution. With this foundation established, we will be able to approach our critical analysis of modern military theory and practice from a much better informed perspective.
Objectives:
- Understand the objectives of the course and the process by which the seminar will achieve these objectives.
- Appreciate the influences that shaped both the character and conduct of European war in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Issues for Consideration:
- What are your own key ideas about the character and conduct of war?
- Do you accept the notion that there are immutable principles that should govern and shape the character and conduct of war? Why, or why not?
- What were the principal factors shaping and defining the character of war in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? Do they bear any similarity to factors at play today?
- Could current and future developments in technology, politics, or economics fundamentally change the character or conduct of war? If so, how?
Required Readings:
* Peter Paret, "Introduction," and R. R. Palmer, "Frederick the Great, Guibert, Bulow: From Dynastic to National War," Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, ed. Peter Paret (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986), pp. 3-8, 91-113. (Student Issue)
* Michael Howard, "The Causes of War" and "War and the Nation State," The Causes of War, ed. Michael Howard (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), pp. 7-22 and 23-35. (Reprint)
* Andrew Krepinevich, "From Cavalry to Computer," The National Interest, No. 37, Fall 1994, pp. 30-42. (Reprint)
Supplemental Readings:
* Michael Howard, War in European History (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1976).
* Hew Strachan, European Armies and the Conduct of War (London: George, Allen, and Unwin, 1983).
* Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
* Archer Jones, The Art of War in the Western World (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987).
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