This in turn eventually led to a much more careful consideration of the connection between politics, policy, strategy, and operations in war. If successful, this short essay will have produced two results. From this such perspective, it would seem that further efforts to advance (ugly?) As a theorist, Carl Von Clausewitz is often reduced to his dictum that “war is a continuation of politics by other means,” (pp. Clausewitz enlisted in the Prussian army in 1792, and in 1793–95 he took part (and was commissioned) in the campaigns of the First This lesson applies equally in the business world, and here we have great cause for concern. As the primary instrument of foreign policy, diplomacy is the highest expression of political intercourse. A strategy must be distilled into the simplest language possible so that everyone in an organization can follow it. Others, such as military strategist John Stone, have praised Clausewitz’s definition while adding what they believed to be much-needed qualifications. 2 Michael Ho ward, „The Continuing Relevance of Clausewit z? in Hugh Smith (ed). Francis Miyata earned an MA in War Studies from King’s College London in November 2019. Carl Philipp Gottfried (or Gottlieb) von Clausewitz (/ ˈklaʊzəvɪts /; 1 June 1780 – 16 November 1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the "moral" (meaning, in modern terms, psychological) and political aspects of … Your email address will not be published. Peter … The contemporary reception of the … Even further gains by nations such as China and Russia today. 280). The Strategy Institute of The Boston Consulting Group, which pens an insightful essay introducing and connecting Clausewitz's thinking to the realities of … INTRODUCTION: The Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz is widely acknowledged as the most important of the classical strategic thinkers. An organization’s survival depends on the mastery of a dynamic process for generating ongoing renewal. He makes the blunt claim that once you have destroyed your enemy’s spirit — his will to fight — you have won the war. On Clausewitz. Strategy is about picking the right battles. Strategy, like any other discipline in the modern world, as Alvin Toffler reminds us, requires constant learning, unlearning, and relearning. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army, or the Department of Defense. The concept, derived from the Greek strategia — a compound of stratos, meaning “army,” and agein, meaning “to lead” — was instead born in the military. 91). The right sequence is essential: strategy first, planning afterwards. Clausewitz lays out here a powerful definition of strategy. The contention of this essay is that Carl von Clausewitz implicitly defined grand strategy in his magnum opus, On War, as the sum of the tools of statecraft. Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general and military thinker, whose work Vom Kriege (1832; On War) has become one of the most respected classics on military strategy. Role-playing is a useful way to plot this out. Strategy is concerned with defining an overall purpose and priorities. Within their grand strategies, peer competitors are forging a tighter integration within the totality of the means of political intercourse such that economics is subsumed by war’s adversarial impulse. He analogizes each through a trinity. Some generals consider only unilateral action, whereas war consists of a continuous interaction of opposites … no strategy ever survives the first engagement with the enemy. , The Strategists, Australian Defence Studies Centre, Canberra, 2001, p 29. Taken together Clausewitz provides us with a framework with which to contemplate strategy, the rational application of the means (fighting) by different ways (the military methods mentioned above) augmented with non-military approaches/sources of power to achieve a military aim/objective which allows us to then achieve a political purpose with the possible augmentation of … Perhaps the most stark example is the “civil-military fusion” being incorporated into China’s grand strategic Belt Road Initiative (BRI). DoD Readers and Listeners: please use a non-DoD email to subscribe. Diplomacy is international dialogue encompassing negotiations, alliances, treaties, agreements, etc. The talent of the strategist is to identify the … Clausewitz's definition of strategy, as given in On War, is very unsatisfactory. In such high-stakes choice making, an ad hoc approach will not cut it. This interpretation of Clausewitz leads to the definition of strategy as maintaining a floating balance of … 33 War may have its own nature of passion and violence, … It is the sum of all means of verbal and written communication. But it is not a substitute for strategy. [7] Bismarck and von Moltke owe much of their success to their understanding of another Clausewitzian principle: that harmony of purpose must exist between statesman and general. Clausewitz writes, “Is not war merely another kind of writing and language for thought? As a continuation of political intercourse, it is no mistake that within war the routes of military supply, reinforcement, and recombination are denoted by the term Lines of Communication. Clausewitz on Thinking Strategy: "Strategy is the use of the engagement to achieve the objectives of the war; therefore, it must give an aim to the whole military action that corresponds to the goal of war. Clausewitz, however, emphasizes the definitive importance of “moral factors,” or what we think of as morale. Simplicity is not a short cut; it’s hard work — requiring the kind of intense mental engagement Clausewitz emphasizes. Ignore: A winning strategy requires a disciplined mind and a steadfast character. When the instruments of diplomacy fail to rectify the nation-state’s pressing political imperatives, war is called forth to accomplish the same by different means. As Geoffrey Till explains in his book Seapower, Sea Lines of Communication have the peacetime function of transporting commerce. For Clausewitz, theory is a means to promoting insights by organizing experience in one’s mind. Henri Amiel stated it well: “Without passion man is a latent force, like the flint, which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.”. However, Paul Kennedy refutes this in his monumental work The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. “No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his … Therefore, the dual military-commercial usage of Sea Lines of Communication tightly integrates military and economic grammars of political intercourse within a single domain of contestation. This is a sophisticated business-oriented translation of On War, highly abridged and focusing on Clausewitz's theoretical approach to strategy in particular rather than on broader issues like the nature of war, politics, etc. al) “soft power” is on the rise today; this, because it supports traditional society — and, thus, stands against new/modern U.S./Western society and its radically modern demands. Second, Clausewitz’s notion of the nation-state as an organ of political intercourse and nation-states’ grand strategy as the direction of the totality of their means is well suited to accommodate the strategic exigencies of today’s international system. Strategic theory: the primacy of policy. Carl von Clausewitz defined strategy as “the use of the engagement to attain the object of war” (390). In On War, there is a theory of grand strategy because Clausewitz had conceptualized the nation-state as equipped to participate in perpetual international intercourse. It is no exaggeration to say that Sea Lines of Communication are the basis of today’s economics, with more than 90% of trade conveyed by sea (Seapower (2019), pp. Written nearly two centuries ago, Carl von Clausewitz’s classic guide to military strategy, On War, remains essential reading for modern business strategists. Clausewitz’s definition gives us the theoretical superstructure for thinking and acting strategically. strategy and technology to win the war in Vietnam led to greater emphasis on the study of classical military theory as exemplified by Clausewitz. that Clausewitz’ reflections on strategy unfold along two parallel arguments. War is merely one means of communication and should not be separated from its political context. This is a clear example of Foucault’s inversion of Clausewitz’s dictum, when he states, “Political is war by other means.”. . Carl von Clausewitz was a 19th-century Prussian general and is considered by many to be the millennium's preeminent strategist. The primacy of policy has dominated modern strategic thinking since Carl von Clausewitz noted that war is not an independent phenomenon but a modification of political intercourse. Therefore, for Clausewitz, grand strategy is the totality of the state’s means of political intercourse directed toward the object(s) of policy. . The nation-state is the foundation of international political intercourse and, more generally, communication. All elaborations are subplots of this central theme. Though grammatically distinct, both follow the dictates of a single guiding logic. However, Clausewitz offers a notion of grand strategy not in his theory of war but in his theory of the state. While the classical and neoclassical economic notion of commerce as a pacifying force remains popular in the West, the logic of economics has always been contested (Seapower (2019), 233). This formulation of grand strategy conceives of integrating these tools such that the different forms of grammar may be used in concert to form a single statement of political intercourse. Clausewitz, a Prussian general who fought against Napoleon, quite literally wrote the book on war. That is to say, war is one means of political intercourse, characterized by military force, to accomplish political ends. No entity, regardless of size, has unlimited resources. Namely, that Clausewitz was not only a theorist of war but, implicitly, a philosopher of the modern nation-state. He had immense faith in the nation-state’s universality and durability, such that it began to take on for him a secular theological import (Clausewitz and the State (1985), pp. However, statecraft includes other means of political intercourse—more forms of grammar—to express the overarching logic of its grand strategy. Appraisals of his formulation aside, this definition of strategy in itself offers little in the way of conceptualizing a definition of grand strategy. For Clausewitz, “war is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means,” (On War (1943), pp. These subtractions are the toughest decisions of all, but ducking them can be fatal. The theories of Carl Von Clausewitz provide valuable insights to 21 st century military planners, practitioners and observers of warfare. After practicing law, he embarked on an international business... © document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) Columbia University As Henry Kissinger famously stated, “diplomacy is the art of restraining power.” Thus, it appears that diplomacy is in some measure contrary to war, which is nothing other than a violent irruption of power. In accordance with Clausewitz’s theory, Bismarck managed von Moltke’s military victories (means) to pursue the greater political strategy of unification (ends). Complexity paralyzes. The ASPI report concludes that, “The trend is toward an increasingly Chinese-dominated political, economic, technological, and strategic ecosystem in the Indo-Pacific,” which is doing more to hinder American power projection than overt military measures. As Peter Drucker said, “The first task of a leader is to be the trumpet that sounds the clear sound.”. Privacy and Policy Statements. Simplicity empowers. Required fields are marked *. His dictum that war is a continuation of politics is inextricably linked to the secondary trinity, the nation-state of his day, consisting of the people, the military, and the government (On War (1943), pp. Clausewitz gives us the answer. In fact, the essence of strategy is stunningly simple, and therein lies its power. Tactics are about successfully executing those battles. We execute it with a plan. For example, your budget should be the financial expression of your strategy, not the reverse. 313). When that encouragement is lacking, self-doubt sets in and motivation is undermined. The nation-state permeates the whole of Clausewitz’s work. As the affairs of states continue to evolve into a complex web of interdependence, cooperation, and competition, pressure mounts on states to effectively employ the tools of statecraft to attain their political objects. But the document alone is not the final deliverable of a strategy. 3022 Broadway, New York, NY 10027 212-854-1100 These include the grammar of diplomacy and the grammar of economics. Carl von Clausewitz defined strategy as “the use of the engagement to attain the object of war” (390). No distractions; no sideshows. This reductive image of the Prussian General obscures the vast insight carried in his work. Once we have identified this, it’s all about focus and determination. For Clausewitz, the nation-state is characterized by its capacity to harness material and the energy of the people and convert it into the activity of war. Yet for much of modern history the word “strategy” seldom appeared in the business vernacular. Simplicity in planning fosters energy in execution. This notion substantiates Emile Simpson’s formulation of war, presented in his work War From the Ground Up, as a competition to impose meaning (pp. We are susceptible to a false mental image that our competitors are standing still — that we are the only ones moving. Perhaps Clausewitz’s greatest contribution to the profession of arms is recognizing war as a human endeavor, and that technology is an enabler of warfare, not its panacea, even in context of cyber warfare. U.S./Western new/modern “soft power;” this likely to result in: a. In other words, civil-economic are strategically integrated into the BRI as pretexts for potential military uses. . b. On the eve of Napoleon's invasion of Russia (1812) he, like other German patriots, entered Russian service where he distinguished himself and was partially responsible for the Russians' successful strategic retreat. What would their most likely counter-moves be? However, it would not be correct to say that war and diplomacy are simply at odds or irreconcilable since history has shown that it is often at the negotiation table that military victories are consolidated or degraded. We need a philosophy of strategy that contains the seeds of its constant rejuvenation — a way to chart strategy in an unstable environment. Making choices therefore means deciding what we will not do. Clausewitz on Strategy is a newly translated collection of sections from Clausewitz's classic work On War that's aimed at helping 21st-century executives and entrepreneurs grapple with the unpredictability of today's business climate. They have always been necessary to sustain the life and prosperity of the nation-state (pp. Liddell Hart in his work Strategy, have criticized this definition’s narrowness and what he perceived as congenital bellicosity. . THE GRAND STRATEGY OF CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, THE INFORMATION APOCALYPSE PART X: THE ROAD AHEAD, CULTIVATING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ONE STUDENT AT A TIME, START WITH BOOK THREE: FINDING UTILITY IN CLAUSEWITZ’S ON WAR, LEADERSHIP ROLE MODELS IN FICTION REVISITED: A WHITEBOARD. In the last analysis it is at moral, not physical strength that all military action is directed … Moral factors, then, are the ultimate determinants in war. It has already been translated into several languages. It is holistic. But for most organizations, this was just a rebranding exercise for existing routines, not a change in behavior. Carl von Clausewitz (1780 to 1831) was a Prussian soldier, professor, and intellectual, whose combat experience and deep reflection on strategy and military theory led to the writing and posthumous publication of Vom Kriege (On War) in 1832. Why do we need a strategy in the first place? Creative Thinking about National Security and Defense. 282). Tactics are the use of armed forces in a particular battle, while strategy is the doctrine of the use of individual battles for the purposes of war. It clarifies how the individual battles fit together and why they are being fought. Clausewitz on Strategy is an extremely well-done book that takes the key points of On War, polishes them until they shine brightly, sets them amid many commentaries that elaborate on the same points, and uses a thoughtful introduction to connect the ideas to business strategy. Concentrate: Note here the words “concentrate everything” — not only our physical resources, but also the hearts and minds of our people. After every battle, Clausewitz documented his observations in search of a framework to solve these problems. Note: In composing this article I have drawn on the translations from von Clausewitz’s German text by both Michael Howard, the military historian, and the Boston Consulting Group. With the relative abeyance of overt military conflict, scholars have readily identified how interstate competition has increasingly played out under the grammar of economics, or what has become known as ‘Geoeconomics.’ In a seminal essay, Edward N. Luttwak defines geoeconomics as “the admixture of the logic of conflict with the methods of commerce—or, as Clausewitz would have written, the logic of war in the grammar of commerce.” Thus, commerce is being weaponized to engender uneven economic and strategic development, accomplishing the object of war by other means. This requires a shift of gears from strategy as planning to strategy as learning. Clausewitz begins his theory of war by studying the relationship of means and ends, first in tactics and then in strategy. In fact, competitors are running as fast as they can, so closing a gap means that we have to run even faster. First, he explores the principal difficulties of a positive theory of strategy. Your email address will not be published. Success comes only from thinking several steps ahead. For Clausewitz, it is a belief that strategy can only come about if the parts, such as the people, military and government, become fully aligned to support the operation fully. A painting of the The Battle of Moscow, 7th September 1812, from 1822 by Louis-François Lejeune. In this regard read, for example, the March 21st, 2016 The American Interest article “The Reality of Russian Soft Power” by John Lloyd and Daria Litinova: https://www.the-american-interest.com/2018/03/21/putins-soft-power/. The common term in business before the 1970s was “long-term planning” — the practice of forecasting numbers to map the future. Consequently, as Halford Mackinder identified over a century ago, rapid shifts in economic power resulting from equally rapid and uneven economic development inevitably produces destabilizing changes in international political power. In his biography, Clausewitz and the State, Peter Paret elucidates the centrality of the state in Clausewitz’s thought when he writes, “Clausewitz regarded the growth of the modern state as the most significant process in history,” (pp. Is equipped with multiple means of communication and should not be separated from political. The document alone is not war merely another kind of ritualistic planning is no longer enough stunningly... Always keep the main thing the main thing is very unsatisfactory communication have the full-hearted of! 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