Military Theory: Strategies, Tactics, and Innovations in Modern Warfare

By Fouad Sabry

What is Military Theory

Military theory is the study of the theories which define, inform, guide and explain war and warfare. Military Theory analyses both normative behavioral phenomena and explanatory causal aspects to better understand war and how it is fought. It examines war and trends in warfare beyond simply describing events in military history. While military theories may employ the scientific method, theory differs from Military Science. Theory aims to explain the causes for military victory and produce guidance on how war should be waged and won, rather than developing universal, immutable laws which can bound the physical act of warfare or codifying empirical data, such as weapon effects, platform operating ranges, consumption rates and target information, to aid military planning.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Military Theory

Chapter 2: Carl von Clausewitz

Chapter 3: Guerrilla warfare

Chapter 4: List of military tactics

Chapter 5: On War

Chapter 6: Strategy

Chapter 7: Sun Tzu

Chapter 8: The Art of War

Chapter 9: List of military writers

Chapter 10: Military science

(II) Answering the public top questions about military theory.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Military Theory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: May 31, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Military theory

Beyond merely recounting the facts of war, military theory analyzes normative conduct and patterns in military affairs and military history.

Throughout human history, many cultures have had diverse theories and concepts of warfare. Scholars consider the Chinese general Sun Tzu to be one of the first military strategists. He created the groundwork for operational planning, tactics, strategy, and logistics in his now-iconic book The Art of War.

The intricate cultural, political, and economic relationships between countries, as well as the conflicts they cause, are attempted to be captured by military theories, particularly since the influence of Clausewitz in the nineteenth century. These military ideas may include strategies such as split and conquer, starving out the defenders, and others.

{End Chapter 1}

Chapter 2: Carl von Clausewitz

Prussian officer and military theorist Carl Philipp Gottfried (or Gottlieb) von Clausewitz placed emphasis on the moral, or psychological in current parlance, and political aspects of engaging in war. Though unfinished at the time of his passing, his most famous work, Vom Kriege (On War), is regarded as a key study on military tactics.

While in some ways romantic, Clausewitz was a realist in many other terms, including realpolitik. He also extensively drew from the rationalist concepts of the European Enlightenment.

Clausewitz emphasized the dialectical interaction of various factors, pointing out that commanders must act quickly in the face of unexpected developments that are occurring in the fog of war (i.e., in the face of incomplete, dubious, and frequently inaccurate information as well as great fear, doubt, and excitement). He believed that history served as an essential check on intellectual abstractions that did not match reality. He maintained that, in contrast to Antoine-Henri Jomini's early work, war could not be measured or reduced to mapwork, geometry, or graphs. The most well-known of Clausewitz's many aphorisms is War is the continuation of policy by other methods. (often mistranslated as by other ways).

In non-German publications, Clausewitz's Christian names have occasionally been listed as Karl, Carl Philipp Gottlieb, or Carl Maria. In order to align himself with the classical Western tradition, he spelled his own given name with a C; writers who use Karl sometimes want to stress their German (rather than European) origin. On Clausewitz's gravestone, it says Carl Philipp Gottfried..

On June 1, 1780, Clausewitz was born in Burg bei Magdeburg, in the Prussian Duchy of Magdeburg. He was the youngest and fourth son of a noble-status-claiming family, which Carl acknowledged.

The family of Clausewitz claimed to be descended from the Upper Silesia-based Barons of Clausewitz, even though academics dispute the association.

On Machiavelli was written by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, as a Writer, and His Writings, Passages, June 1807.

(Über Machiavell, als Schriftsteller, and instances from his writings).

Regarding his book on Machiavelli, Carl Clausewitz sent a fascinating and anonymous letter to Fichte in 1809.

The letter was printed in Verstreute kleine Schriften by Fichte, 157–166.

See Carl von Clausewitz Historical and Political Writings for an English translation of the text. D and Peter Paret edited the text.

Moran (1992).

On December 10th, 1810, he married the socially prominent Countess Marie von Brühl, whom he'd first encountered in 1803.

She was a member of the noble German Brühl family originating in Thuringia.

The couple circulated in echelon, getting to know Berlin's political, literary, and intellectual élite.

Marie was educated and politically connected; she was instrumental in her husband's professional and intellectual development.

She passed away in January 1836.

Although Clausewitz served as a professional combat soldier in multiple military operations, he is best known as a military theorist who studied war and used Napoleon's and Frederick the Great's campaigns as models for his writing. Before this period, soldiers had produced treatises on a variety of military topics, but no one had attempted a thorough philosophical analysis of war on the same level as Clausewitz and Leo Tolstoy, who were both motivated by the events of the Napoleonic Era.

The fact that Clausewitz's writings are still studied today shows how relevant they still are. Between 2005 and 2014, more than sixteen significant English-language volumes particularly devoted to his work were released, in contrast to the decline of his 19th-century adversary Jomini. According to historian Lynn Montross, this result may be accounted for by the distinction between Jomini's military system and Clausewitz's philosophy. New weapons have rendered the first obsolete, while the latter continues to shape the design of those weapons.

The best demonstration of a prince or general's brilliance is when he or she knows exactly how to organize the war in