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Title: TRANSFORMATION OF WAR by Martin L. Van Creveld ISBN: 0-02-933155-2 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 31 March, 1991 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: What is War? Why War? The War of the Future!
Comment: What is war?
War is the army that fights it. Soldiers are warriors guided by rules of engagement. Some consider war to be the maximum violence a civilization can inflict on another civilization; however, if this were true then every soldier would be a murder, mobster, villian, or outlaw. War is governed by the laws of war. This is not to say every situation in war follows the laws of war, but in general if soldiers did not belief in their cause and the rules of engagement then massive depression, resistence, and disorder would prevail. War conflicts are about organization, planning, intelligence, and moral resolve. War is about idealogy. Rules of war generally do not require or should not allow the killing of innocent non-combatants. The white flag means the contest if over and no resistence is to be expected from the combatant. Historically, numerous war criminals, dictators, and geo political entities have violated these maxims and killed with no regard to human life. Soldiers who violate the rules of engagement lose motivation, sense of purpose, and often resort of methods of escaptism such as drugs and abandonment. Technology and war: the bow and arrow was not consider chivareous and not immediately employeed into modern warfare; technology transformed the methods of killing by increasing the range of the weapon: phalax, arrow, cannon, ICBM, to the sleath bomber; chemical and biological weapons are so horrible they are not used. An when weapons of mass destruction are used the horror is increased. As longer periods of time ellaspe between their usage, lower propensity to use them increases.
Why is there war?
The compelling reason there is war is because the soldier is willing to risk his life for an ideal. To say the soldier fights for self-interest is absolutely incorrect. The concept of wars being fought by foreign mercenaries is not new. However, no war was every won by a group of foreign mercenaries. If war was about self interest then soldiers would be committing acts of murder, rape, or pillaging. War is not an unnoble act of greed, lust, or hatred. Soldiers are not monsters of illegal violence. Soldiers follow orders. They are not held responsible for those they kill in the contest while following orders. The act of war is one of the most selfless acts and is praised with some of the highest honours give by men. In order to fight the soldier must be willing to risk his life. These reasons can be : to preserve a way of life, to protect one's family or nation, and to protect another soldier in arms. War can create powerful emotions, such as a compelling belief and feeling of exhileration, pride, honour centering around soldier mission, leader, or cause. Unnecessary killing is avoided when possible. Careful planning and information helps the soldier to know the boundaries of war and prevents the soldier from unnecessary killing. Communities mourn and support the families of lost soldiers. The given life of a soldier is considered as an example of bravery, courage, and love. Just as the Greeks would not leave their fallen comrades neither do the Marines abandon their dead. This connection increases the unity in the ranks, risks they are willing to take for each other, and increases their sense of purpose and identity.
The inability to achieve objectives can kill a soldier half to death, as in the case of the trench wars of World War I where no side could circle and trap the opponent to end the conflict; and today, terrorist present the same dillema as they have not stationary base and so a rapid conflict decreases in effectiveness. But this much is sure Technology, information, strategy, and idealogy combine to transform war and with this adaption - the war of the future is sure to materialize.
Rating: 5
Summary: BRAVO!!!
Comment: Although this book was written in 1991 the scenarios and tendencies discussed in the book are now becoming reality in terrorism, civil wars in Africa and the Balkans, and the fruitless war in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians.
Creveld convincingly argues that the new conflicts will not neccessarily be fought between states, and that technology and military superiority are not neccessarily guarantees of victory. Creveld shows that while the militaries of the West has run away on a shopping spree to acqurie the new nifty things in the shape of fighter jets, submarines, and laser guided missiles the enemy in the shape of guerillas and terrorist have acquired other, less advanced means, to fight back. The US helicopters that were shot down in Somalia and Afghanistan were not taken down with high tech missiles - instead they were grounded by RPG-7s, a grenade launcher from the 1950s.
But Creveld does so much more with this book. Rather than being a book only about the future of war it is about the future of the international system. Creveld's book has greatly influenced other writers such as Robert Kaplan who wrote "The Coming Anarchy".
Believers in technology, the wonders of globalization, and the supremacy of the nation state should read this book and seriously consider it. The world as we know it might not be around in the future - and it doesn't look pretty.
Rating: 5
Summary: the new clausewitz
Comment: In the not too distant future, this book will eclipse Clausewitz's On War. Van Creveld's work truly explains a major on-going transformation of warfare--a transformation we are having a hard time dealing with.
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Title: The Rise and Decline of the State by Martin Van Creveld ISBN: 052165629X Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War by Robert D. Kaplan ISBN: 037570759X Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 13 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Command in War by Martin van Creveld ISBN: 0674144414 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1987 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: America's Strategic Choices - revised edition (International Security Readers) by Michael E. Brown, Owen R., Jr. Cote, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, Steven E Miller ISBN: 0262522748 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 24 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age by Peter Paret ISBN: 0691027641 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1986 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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