Strategy: the logic of war and peace Luttwak, Edward N.

By:

Luttwak, Edward N

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Cambridge The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001Edition: Revised and enlarged editionDescription: xii, 308 pISBN:

0674007034
9780674007031

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

355.4 L8S8

Summary: “If you want peace, prepare for war.” “A buildup of offensive weapons can be purely defensive.” “The worst road may be the best route to battle.” Strategy is made of such seemingly self-contradictory propositions, Edward Luttwak shows—they exemplify the paradoxical logic that pervades the entire realm of conflict. In this widely acclaimed work, now revised and expanded, Luttwak unveils the peculiar logic of strategy level by level, from grand strategy down to combat tactics. Having participated in its planning, Luttwak examines the role of air power in the 1991 Gulf War, then detects the emergence of “post-heroic” war in Kosovo in 1999—an American war in which not a single American soldier was killed. In the tradition of Carl von Clausewitz, Strategy goes beyond paradox to expose the dynamics of reversal at work in the crucible of conflict. As victory is turned into defeat by over-extension, as war brings peace by exhaustion, ordinary linear logic is overthrown. Citing examples from ancient Rome to our own days, from Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor down to minor combat affrays, from the strategy of peace to the latest operational methods of war, this book by one of the world’s foremost authorities reveals the ultimate logic of military failure and success, of war and peace. (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674007031)

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Book	Ahmedabad	Non-fiction	355.4 L8S8 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		191233

Total holds: 0

Table of contents:

Preface

PART I: THE LOGIC OF STRATEGY

1. The Conscious Use of Paradox in War

2. The Logic in Action

3. Efficiency and the Culminating Point of Success

4. The Coming Together of Opposites

PART II: THE LEVELS OF STRATEGY

5. The Technical Level

6. The Tactical Level

7. The Operational Level

8. Theater Strategy I: Military Options and Political Choices

9. Theater Strategy II: Offense and Defense

10. Theater Stragegy III: Interdiction and the Surprise Attack

11. Nonstrategies: Naval, Air, Nuclear

12. The Renaissance of Strategic Air Power

PART III: OUTCOMES: GRAND STRATEGY

13. The Scope of Grand Strategy

14. Armed Suasion

15. Harmony and Disharmony in War

16. Can Strategy Be Useful?

Appendix A: Definitions of Strategy

Appendix B: The Gulf War Air Campaign

Appendix C: Instant Thunder

Notes

Works Cited

Index

“If you want peace, prepare for war.” “A buildup of offensive weapons can be purely defensive.” “The worst road may be the best route to battle.” Strategy is made of such seemingly self-contradictory propositions, Edward Luttwak shows—they exemplify the paradoxical logic that pervades the entire realm of conflict.

In this widely acclaimed work, now revised and expanded, Luttwak unveils the peculiar logic of strategy level by level, from grand strategy down to combat tactics. Having participated in its planning, Luttwak examines the role of air power in the 1991 Gulf War, then detects the emergence of “post-heroic” war in Kosovo in 1999—an American war in which not a single American soldier was killed.

In the tradition of Carl von Clausewitz, Strategy goes beyond paradox to expose the dynamics of reversal at work in the crucible of conflict. As victory is turned into defeat by over-extension, as war brings peace by exhaustion, ordinary linear logic is overthrown. Citing examples from ancient Rome to our own days, from Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor down to minor combat affrays, from the strategy of peace to the latest operational methods of war, this book by one of the world’s foremost authorities reveals the ultimate logic of military failure and success, of war and peace.

(http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674007031)

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