War

Clausewitz and beyond

In A History of Warfare, the British military historian John Keegan argues that war is not a monolithic phenomenon but a diverse practice that is both culturally and historically situated. People have fought each other throughout human history, but combatants’ understandings of the nature and purpose of war, the technologies that they have had at their disposal, and the ways in which they have conducted themselves in battle have contributed to profoundly different approaches to fighting. Wars fought between states are different from those fought between ethnic groups, for instance, and wars of national survival are different from wars fought for primarily ceremonial reasons.

Keegan's work emphasizes the need to recognize the importance of these differences and to encounter military theorists and their theories as reflective of particular cultural and military traditions. For the Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld, these traditions can be engaged by asking five interrelated questions: By whom is war fought? What is war all about? How is war fought? What is war fought for? And, finally, Why is war fought? In asking these questions, van Creveld draws attention to the ways in which the nature of war can change depending on the involvement of professionalized armies or irregular forces; the fundamental assumptions and norms that guide the conduct of war; the strategies, tactics, and technologies deployed; the interests or reasons that are understood to justify war; and the sense of meaning or overarching purpose that inspires combatants to fight.

Such perspectives encourage readers to encounter texts like Sun Tzu's The Art of War through the eyes of its ancient Chinese author instead of their own preconceptions. The corporate executives and military strategists who currently read The Art of War to position themselves against the threats in their midst may be startled to find a Confucian [Page 878]military theory that is often at odds with Western expectations. Though its 13 chapters certainly address topics that have since then become the stock-and-trade of military strategy—building strategic advantage, strategic deception, and so on—Sun Tzu encourages generals to harmonize themselves and their forces within the tao or “way” of battle through the careful balance of their strengths and weaknesses. Keegan notes that this emphasis on harmony, which is described through natural metaphors, contributes to an unexpectedly conservative approach to conflict, in which destroying the enemy's forces always comes second to preserving one's own. In many ways, The Art of War is not the art of combat but the art of developing and using one's strategic capacities to avoid combat and bloodshed altogether.

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