The Evolution of Strategy by Heuser -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Acknowledgements A note on referencing Part I Introduction 1 What is strategy?

Part II Long-term constants 2 Warfare and mindsets from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

3 Warfare and mindsets in early modern Europe

Causes, aims and practice of war in early modern Europe The ethics of war in early modern Europe

4 Themes in early thinking about Strategy

Sieges and static defences from Troy to Basra Feudal levies, mercenaries or militia? Battle avoidance or decisive battles? Limited and unlimited wars The enduring quest for eternal principles governing warfare

Part III The Napoleonic paradigm and Total War 5 The age and mindset of the Napoleonic paradigm

6 The Napoleonic paradigm transformed: from total mobilisation to total war

The quest for total victory The centrality of the battle Annihilation of the enemy The universal cult of the offensive Total mobilisation or professional military elites?

7 Challenges to the Napoleonic paradigm versus the culmination of Total War

Part IV Naval and maritime Strategy 8 Long-term trends and early maritime Strategy

Strategy on land, at sea and in the air Writing in the age of oar and sail

9 The age of steam to the First World War

The ‘Anglo-Saxon’ writers in the age of steam French naval theorists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Germany before the First World War Conclusions

10 The World Wars and their lessons for maritime Strategists

The First World War British lessons French lessons The second-tier powers US lessons from the Second World War Conclusions

11 Maritime Strategy in the nuclear age

The Cold War framework Multiple roles for navies Strategies for second-tier powers Change of world-views and principles in conducting international affairs Conclusions

Part V Air power and nuclear Strategy 12 War in the third dimension

Child and grandchild of naval Strategy The beginnings of air power

13 Four schools of air power

The strategic or city bombing school The military targets school: denial The leadership targeting school: decapitation The political signalling school: games theories Conclusions

14 Nuclear Strategy

Targets Deterrence Nuclear war-fighting Strategy War taken to its absurd extreme

Part VI Asymmetric or ‘small’ wars 15 From partisan warfare to people’s war

Two meanings of ‘small war’ The mosquito and the lion: tactics Hearts and minds I Defence in depth

16 Counterinsurgency

The legal status of insurgents Brutal repression Hearts and minds II Conclusions

Part VII The quest for new paradigms after the World Wars 17 Wars without victories, victories without peace

The First World War as turning point? Causes, conduct and ethics of wars since 1945 The relinquishment of the Napoleonic paradigm The return of limited wars Coercion Defensive defence and the relinquishment of victory

18 No end of history: the dialectic continues

The Napoleonic paradigm strikes back: Summers’s Clausewitzian critique Major war since 1945 The return of small wars Future developments

19 Epilogue: Strategy-making versus bureaucratic politics

Policy and Strategy in practice The frailty of human logic

20 Summaries and conclusions Bibliography Index