Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Author: Barry D. Watts

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 0788146173

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Since the end of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, there has been growing discussion of the possibility that technological advances in the means of combat would produce ftmdamental changes in how future wars will be fought. A number of observers have suggested that the nature of war itself would be transformed. Some proponents of this view have gone so far as to predict that these changes would include great reductions in, if not the outright elimination of, the various impediments to timely and effective action in war for which the Prussian theorist and soldier Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) introduced the term "friction." Friction in war, of course, has a long historical lineage. It predates Clausewitz by centuries and has remained a stubbornly recurring factor in combat outcomes right down to the 1991 Gulf War. In looking to the future, a seminal question is whether Clausewitzian friction would succumb to the changes in leading-edge warfare that may lie ahead, or whether such impediments reflect more enduring aspects of war that technology can but marginally affect. It is this question that the present essay will examine.


Clausewitzian Friction and Future War: Revised Edition

Clausewitzian Friction and Future War: Revised Edition

Author: Barry D. Watts

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2012-07-09

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 9781478215318

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The original version of this paper, completed in December 1995, was condensed by Williamson Murray, editor of Brassey's Mershon American Defense Annual, for the 1996-1997 edition. This condensation did not include three entire sections that are part of this present study (chapter 3 on Scharnhorst's influence, chapter 6 on strategic surprise, and chapter 9, which contained air combat data bearing on the role of friction in future war). Dr. Murray also cut significant parts of other sections, especially in chapter 10, and precipitated a fair amount of rewriting as he and I worked toward a version that met his length constraint but still reflected the essence of the original paper. While this process led to many textual improvements, it did not generate any substantive changes.


Clausewitz and Chaos

Clausewitz and Chaos

Author: Stephen J. Cimbala

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13:

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Failure and folly are inevitable in war and in security policy related to war. Technology cannot rescue flawed policy or strategy. In his review of U.S. military strategy, Cimbala points to the possibility that excessive faith in technology may lead American strategy into a cul-de-sac.


Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Author: Barry Watts

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2012-07-09

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 9781478213826

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Since the end of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, there has been growing discussion of the possibility that technological advances in the means of combat would produce ftmdamental changes in how future wars will be fought. A number of observers have suggested that the nature of war itself would be transformed. Some proponents of this view have gone so far as to predict that these changes would include great reductions in, if not the outright elimination of, the various impediments to timely and effective action in war for which the Prussian theorist and soldier Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) introduced the term "friction." Friction in war, of course, has a long historical lineage. It predates Clausewitz by centuries and has remained a stubbornly recurring factor in combat outcomes right down to the 1991 Gulf War. In looking to the future, a seminal question is whether Clausewitzian friction would succumb to the changes in leading-edge warfare that may lie ahead, or whether such impediments reflect more enduring aspects of war that technology can but marginally affect. It is this question that the present essay will examine.


Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Author: Barry D. Watts

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13:

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Examines the possibility that technological advances in the means of combat would produce transformation in the fundamental nature of future war. Discusses predictions that changes would include great reductions in, or elimination of, various impediments to timely and effective action in war for which the Prussian theorist and soldier Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) introduced the term "friction." The primary question is whether Clausewitzian friction would succumb to future changes in warfare, or whether such impediments reflect more enduring aspects of war that technology can but marginally affect.


War as Paradox

War as Paradox

Author: Youri Cormier

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2016-11-01

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 0773548505

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Two centuries after Carl von Clausewitz wrote On War, it lines the shelves of military colleges around the world and even showed up in an Al Qaeda hideout. Though it has shaped much of the common parlance on the subject, On War is perceived by many as a “metaphysical fog,” widely known but hardly read. In War as Paradox, Youri Cormier lifts the fog on this iconic work by explaining its philosophical underpinnings. Building up a genealogy of dialectical war theory and integrating Hegel with Clausewitz as a co-founders of the method, Cormier uncovers a common logic that shaped the fighting doctrines and ethics of modern war. He explains how Hegel and Clausewitz converged on method, but nonetheless arrived at opposite ethics and military doctrines. Ultimately, Cormier seeks out the limits to dialectical war theory and explores the greater paradoxes the method reveals: can so-called “rational” theories of war hold up under the pressures of irrational propositions, such as lone-wolf attacks, the circular logic of a “war to end all wars,” or the apparent folly of mutually assured destruction? Since the Second World War, commentators have described war as obsolete. War as Paradox argues that dialectical war theory may be the key to understanding why, despite this, it continues.


On the Nature of War

On the Nature of War

Author: Carl von Clausewitz

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2005-08-25

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13: 0141964278

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Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.


Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Clausewitzian Friction and Future War

Author: Fort Mcnair Washington

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2014-10-26

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9781502958167

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Since the end of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, there has been growing discussion of the possibility that technological advances in the means of combat will produce fundamental changes in how future wars will be fought. A number of observers have suggested that the nature of war itself will be transformed. Some proponents of this view have gone so far as to predict that these changes will include great reductions in, if not the outright elimination of, the various impediments to timely and effective action in war for which the Prussian theorist and soldier Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) introduced the term friction. Friction in war, of course, has a long historical lineage. It predates Clausewitz by centuries and has remained a stubbornly recurring factor in combat outcomes right down to the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent conflicts. In looking to the future, a seminal question is whether Clausewitzian friction will succumb to the changes in leading-edge warfare that may lie ahead, or whether such impediments reflect more enduring aspects of war that technology can but marginally affect. It is this question that the present paper examines. Clausewitz's earliest known use of the term friction to “describe the effect of reality on ideas and intentions in war” occurred in a September 29 letter written to his future wife,Marie von Brühl, less than 3 weeks before France defeated Prussia at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstädt on October 14, 1806.1 By the time Clausewitz died in 1831, his original insight regarding friction's debilitating effects on the campaign of 1806 had grown into a central theme of the unfinished manuscript that his widow published as On War [Vom Kriege].