Clausewitz On War

1. Clausewitz On War • One theorist stands out when thinking about security in orthodox military terms: Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), a Prussian military officer, who fought during the Napoleonic wars. • Although his work is concerned with war and how it is fought, Clausewitz is not a technical thinker. • Rather, war is understood in the first instance as a social phenomenon and as distinctly political • Clausewitz “war is not a mere act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political activity by other means.”

2. Clausewitz (cont) • Two ideas of Clausewitz’ seem most significant. • War is/ought to be the pursuit of politics by other means. • war as the end of normal politics • peace and war are not as distinct as some may like; “if you want peace, prepare for war” • Total war. Success is underpinned by full societal commitment. • war as an outgrowth of politics; reflection of the kind of society from which it arises; importance of political organisation, and historical and social context • Limiting concept of war to state action. • Does war only happen between states? • Yet, war is undeniably bound up in the history of states

3. Clausewitz, On War • Pure War: Elimination or Complete Subjugation of the Enemy by Force • Real War: All conditions and factors that impede or block the realization of “Pure War” • The political objectives of using force by the state is typically the principal constraint or limit to “Pure War” • “Pure War” as such is politically and morally without sense or meaning because all other human values, interests, or preferences are EXCLUDED

4. A system of nation-states, each claiming a monopoly of violence under conditions in which no power or authority rules the system, has implicitly a tendency to move toward pure war if conflict arises between states. • Hobbes’s “War of all against all” is projected by Clausewitz from an individual or group level to state relations and conflict • Clausewitz: “pure war”: “Force . . . is the means of war; to impose our will on the enemy is its object. To secure that object we must render the enemy powerless; and that, in theory, is the true aim of warfare. That aim takes the place of the object, discarding it as something not actually part of war itself.”

5. What Are the Principal Properties of the Nation-State System • All states are sovereign • The system is anarchical • Conflicts between states can be resolved in many ways, but when all means of resolving differences fail, force is the final arbiter or means of resolving differences • Thus the nation-state system is in principle a warfare system

6. What Are the Limits of the Use of Force between Individuals and Groups? • Hobbes: When conflict over values, interests, and preferences arise between individuals and groups and all means short of force have failed to resolve the differences, then force has a tendency to eliminate all limits on the use of force • The result is a “war of all against all”

7. What Are the Limits of the Use of Force between States? • Clausewitz: War between states tends to move toward “Pure War” • The principal limit or constraint of movement toward this final endpoint are the political and moral objectives of the state