War, Strategy, and Military Effectiveness

Shows how studying military and strategic history can help us confront problems of war and peace in the twenty-first century.

Williamson Murray (Author)

9781107614383, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 July 2013

342 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.5 kg

"A very valuable book for anyone interested in policy, strategy, history, and winning wars." - A. A. Nofi, StrategyPage

This collection of articles represents Professor Williamson Murray's efforts to elucidate the role that history should play in thinking about both the present and the future. They reflect three disparate themes in Professor Murray's work: his deep fascination with history and those who have acted in the past; his fascination with the similarities in human behavior between the past and the present; and his belief that the study of military and strategic history can be of real use to those who will confront the daunting problems of war and peace in the twenty-first century. The first group of essays addresses the relevance of history to an understanding of the present and to an understanding of the possibilities of the future. The second addresses the possible direct uses of history to think through the problems involved in the creation of effective military institutions. The final group represents historical case studies that serve to illuminate the present.

1. History and the future
2. Thucydides and Clausewitz
3. Clausewitz out, computers in, military culture and technological hubris
4. Changing the principles of war
5. Military culture does matter
6. History and strategic planning, from Rome to 1945
7. Thoughts on red teaming
8. The distant framework of war
9. The problem of German military effectiveness, 1900–45
10. Reflections on the combined bomber offensive
11. The air war in the Gulf, the limits of air power
12. Thoughts on British intelligence in WWII and the implications for intelligence in the twenty-first century
13. The meaning of World War II.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]