RG

IN CONTEXT

IDEOLOGY

Realism

FOCUS

Diplomacy and war

BEFORE

5th century BCE Sun Tzu states that the art of war is vital to the state.

1513 Niccolò Machiavelli argues that even in peacetime, a prince must be ready and armed in preparation for war.

1807 Georg Hegel states that history is a struggle for recognition that leads to a master and slave relationship.

AFTER

1935 German general Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff develops his notion of a “Total War” that mobilizes the entire physical and moral forces of a nation.

1945 Adolf Hitler cites “the great Clausewitz” in his last testament in the bunker.

Few phrases from military theory have been as influential as Prussian soldier Carl von Clausewitz’s statement that “war is the continuation of Politik by other means,” taken from his book On War, published after his death in 1832. The phrase is one of a series of truisms Clausewitz coins as he attempts to put war in context by examining its philosophical basis, much as philosophers would explore the role of the state. The German word Politik translates as both politics and policy, covering both the principles of governance and its practicalities.

War leads to politics

For Clausewitz, war is a clash of opposing wills. “War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale,” he writes, “an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.” The aim is to disarm your enemy, so that you become the master. But there is no single, decisive blow in war—a defeated state seeks to repair the damage of defeat by using politics. Clausewitz is keen to emphasize that the business of war is serious in intent, and no mere adventure. It is always, he says, a political act, because one state wishes to impose its will on another—or risk submission.

  War is simply the means to a political end that might well be achieved through other means. His point is not to highlight the cynicism of politicians who go to war, but to ensure that those who wage war are always aware of its overriding political goal.

RG

Otto von Bismarck declared Wilhelm I of Prussia Emperor of Germany in 1871. Bismarck had provoked war with France to achieve this political end.

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