The Purpose of the First World War

The Purpose of the First World War

Author: Holger Afflerbach

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-07-01

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 3110435993

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Nearly fourteen million people died during the First World War. But why, and for what reason? Already many contemporaries saw the Great War as a "pointless carnage" (Pope Benedict XV, 1917). Was there a point, at least in the eyes of the political and military decision makers? How did they justify the losses, and why did they not try to end the war earlier? In this volume twelve international specialists analyses and compares the hopes and expectations of the political and military leaders of the main belligerent countries and of their respective societies. It shows that the war aims adopted during the First World War were not, for the most part, the cause of the conflict, but a reaction to it, an attempt to give the tragedy a purpose - even if the consequence was to oblige the belligerents to go on fighting until victory. The volume tries to explain why - and for what - the contemporaries thought that they had to fight the Great War.


Why America Loses Wars

Why America Loses Wars

Author: Donald Stoker

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-05-26

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1009220888

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How can you achieve victory in war if you don't have a clear idea of your political aims and a vision of what victory means? In this provocative challenge to US political aims and strategy, Donald Stoker argues that America endures endless wars because its leaders no longer know how to think about war, particularly wars fought for limited aims, taking the nation to war without understanding what they want or valuing victory and thus the ending of the war. He reveals how flawed ideas on so-called 'limited war' and war in general evolved against the backdrop of American conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These ideas, he shows, undermined America's ability to understand, wage, and win its wars, and to secure peace. Now fully updated to incorporate the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, Why America Loses Wars dismantles seventy years of misguided thinking and lays the foundations for a new approach to the wars of tomorrow.


How We Fight

How We Fight

Author: Dominic Tierney

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2012-11-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0803243960

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Americans love war. We’ve never run from a fight. Our triumphs from the American Revolution to World War II define who we are as a nation and a people. Americans hate war. Our leaders rush us into conflicts without knowing the facts or understanding the consequences. Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq and Afghanistan define who we are as a nation and a people. How We Fight explores the extraordinary double-mindedness with which Americans approach war and articulates the opposing perspectives that have governed our responses throughout history: the “crusade” tradition, or our love of grand quests to defend democratic values and overthrow tyrants; and the “quagmire” tradition, or our resistance to the work of nation-building and its inevitable cost in dollars and American lives. How can one nation be so split? Studying conflicts from the Civil War to the present, Dominic Tierney uncovers the secret history of American foreign policy and provides a frank and insightful look at how Americans respond to the ultimate challenge. And he shows how U.S. military ventures can succeed. His innovative model for tackling the challenges of modern war suggests the possibility of enduring victory in Afghanistan and elsewhere by rediscovering a lost American warrior tradition.


The Russian Understanding of War

The Russian Understanding of War

Author: Oscar Jonsson

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 2019-11-01

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1626167346

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This book analyzes the evolution of Russian military thought and how Russia's current thinking about war is reflected in recent crises. While other books describe current Russian practice, Oscar Jonsson provides the long view to show how Russian military strategic thinking has developed from the Bolshevik Revolution to the present. He closely examines Russian primary sources including security doctrines and the writings and statements of Russian military theorists and political elites. What Jonsson reveals is that Russia's conception of the very nature of war is now changing, as Russian elites see information warfare and political subversion as the most important ways to conduct contemporary war. Since information warfare and political subversion are below the traditional threshold of armed violence, this has blurred the boundaries between war and peace. Jonsson also finds that Russian leaders have, particularly since 2011/12, considered themselves to be at war with the United States and its allies, albeit with non-violent means. This book provides much needed context and analysis to be able to understand recent Russian interventions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, how to deter Russia on the eastern borders of NATO, and how the West must also learn to avoid inadvertent escalation.


British Strategy and War Aims 1914-1916 (RLE First World War)

British Strategy and War Aims 1914-1916 (RLE First World War)

Author: David French

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-03

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1317686950

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This book illustrates the relationship between British military policy and the development of British war aims during the opening years of the First World War. Basing his work on a wide range of unpublished documentary sources, David French reassesses for the benefit of students and scholars alike what was meant by ‘a war of attrition’.


The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson

The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson

Author: David M. Esposito

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 1996-08-30

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13:

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Contrary to popular belief, Woodrow Wilson coordinated foreign and defense policies. Wilson viewed Imperial Germany as a threat to U.S. national security and acted accordingly. His urgent desire to mediate an end to World War I was driven by geo-political concerns. Forced into the war by tertiary issues, he decided to throw a great deal of weight upon the scale by intervening decisively in the Great War in order to dominate the postwar peace conference. There he intended to dictate a scientific peace and to create a League of Nations to insure collective security.


Learning Empire

Learning Empire

Author: Erik Grimmer-Solem

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-09-26

Total Pages: 669

ISBN-13: 1108483828

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The First World War marked the end point of a process of German globalization that began in the 1870s. Learning Empire looks at German worldwide entanglements to recast how we interpret German imperialism, the origins of the First World War, and the rise of Nazism.


Germany's Aims in the First World War

Germany's Aims in the First World War

Author: Fritz Fischer

Publisher: W W Norton & Company Incorporated

Published: 1968-09

Total Pages: 652

ISBN-13: 9780393097986

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A scholarly interpretation of Germany's policies and attitudes during the first World War and their profound effect on subsequent world events


Mission Failure

Mission Failure

Author: Michael Mandelbaum

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13: 0190469471

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Mission Failure argues that, in the past 25 years, the U.S. military has turned to missions that are largely humanitarian and socio-political - and that this ideologically-driven foreign policy generally leads to failure.