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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Luttwak, Edward.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Strategy.

Paradox.

Physical Description:

xii, 308 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Revised and enlarged edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001.

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 combat tactics to grand strategy. 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. He also explains the dynamics of reversal in conflict. As victory is turned into defeat by overextension, 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 puzzling logic of military failure and success, of war and peace.

Contents:

Part I The Logic of Strategy 1

1. The Conscious Use of Paradox in War 3

2. The Logic in Action 16

3. Efficiency and the Culminating Point of Success 32

4. The Coming Together of Opposites 50

Part II The Levels of Strategy 87

5. The Technical Level 93

6. The Tactical Level 103

7. The Operational Level 112

8. Theater Strategy I: Military Options and Political Choices 138

9. Theater Strategy II: Offense and Defense 147

10. Theater Strategy III: Interdiction and the surprise Attack 158

11. Nonstrategies: Naval, Air, Nuclear 168

12. The Renaissance of Strategic Air Power 185

Part III Outcomes: Grand Strategy 207

13. The Scope of Grand Strategy 209

14. Armed Suasion 218

15. Harmony and Disharmony in War 234

16. Can Strategy Be Useful? 258

Appendix B The Gulf War Air Campaign 271

Appendix C Instant Thunder 279.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-303) and index.

ISBN:

0674005082

0674007034

OCLC:

47120377