Thanks to the generosity of Ajarn Charnvit Kasetsiri, the Thammasat University Library has newly acquired a book that should be of interest to students in the Faculties of History, Sociology, Political Science, Law, Business, Science, and related fields. On War by Carl von Clausewitz is shelved among General Books in the Charnvit Kasetsiri Room on the Underground1 level of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus.

General von Clausewitz was a Prussian military theorist in the early 1800s. In discussing the horrible subject of war, which can look chaotic and meaningless, Clausewitz tried to find psychological and political motivations for it. At a time of many wars in Europe, Clausewitz had experience as a field soldier, starting when he was a 13-year-old cadet. A previous blog entry posted on the TU Library blog discussed the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts throughout history, up to the present day. 

The TU Library owns a number of other books by and about Clausewitz, who remains much discussed and considered an essential author for understanding elements of conflict, even if many writers disagree with his conclusions and approach. Among historical leaders who have attentively read Clausewitz and left their impressions about his work are Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler, and the Duke of Wellington.

On the website of the National Defence Studies Institute, National Defence College (NDC) of Thailand at 64 Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Din Daeng, Bangkok, the example of Clausewitz is discussed at length. As all TU students know, the NDC is an educational organization that provides advanced training for senior military officers and civilians. It is operated by the Royal Thai Armed Forces of the Thai Ministry of Defence.

On the website, Clausewitz is called a great student of strategy and the Father of modern strategic study. As the website notes, Clausewitz is “only comparable to Sun Tzu,” the general and military strategist who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China, in terms of lasting achievement. Yet “Clausewitz’s ideas are more modern” since he lived over one thousand years closer to our own era. The TU Library also owns books by and about Sun Tzu.

Some readers who are not military strategists, but are interested in gender studies and women’s studies, are intrigued by the fact that Clausewitz married a countess, who edited and presented his writings in the 1830s after he died. Others find it fascinating that Clausewitz appeared to anticipate such modern concepts as nonlinearity, or the relationship between cause and effect which, when not fully understood, can result in random, chaotic, unpredictable results.

Another aspect of Clausewitz’s work that intrigues researchers today is in the field of complexity theory, organizations in strategic management, and organizational studies. The TU Library owns books about nonlinearity and complexity theory.

 Business thinkers have also been influenced by Clausewitz. Jack Welch, the American chief executive office of the General Electric Corporation, claimed to follow the ideas of Clausewitz, earning billions of dollars.

One of the reasons Clausewitz always seems up to date is that he did not suggest a single fixed system for explaining events. He realized that situations were always changing, so it was best to stick to a few principles and be ready for change when it occurred. Among the many ideas he discussed include the strength of defense, as opposed to offense, what military genius really means, and how it is impossible to predict the results of war.

Here are a few of his most celebrated comments:

• War is very simple, but in war the simplest things become very difficult.
• War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.
• We see, therefore, that war is not merely an act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse carried on with other means. What remains peculiar to war is simply the peculiar nature of its means.
• Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.
• The invention of gunpowder and the constant improvement of firearms are enough in themselves to show that the advance of civilization has done nothing practical to alter or deflect the impulse to destroy the enemy, which is central to the very idea of war.
• ..In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.
• Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
• Any complex activity, if it is to be carried on with any degree of virtuosity, calls for appropriate gifts of intellect and temperament. If they are outstanding and reveal themselves in exceptional achievements, their possessor is called a ‘genius’.
• Of all the passions that inspire a man in a battle, none, we have to admit, is so powerful and so constant as the longing for honor and renown.
• Obstinacy is a fault of temperament. Stubbornness and intolerance of contradiction result from a special kind of egotism, which elevates above everything else the pleasure of its autonomous intellect, to which others must bow.
• …Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.
• Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.
• …Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.
• Knowledge in war is very simple, being concerned with so few subjects, and only with their final results at that. But this does not make its application easy.
• There are times when the utmost daring is the height of wisdom.
• Thus it has come about that our theoretical and critical literature, instead of giving plain, straightforward arguments in which the author at least always knows what he is saying and the reader what he is reading, is crammed with jargon, ending at obscure crossroads where the author loses its readers. Sometimes these books are even worse: they are just hollow shells. The author himself no longer knows just what he is thinking and soothes himself with obscure ideas which would not satisfy him if expressed in plain speech.
• Essentially, combat is an expression of hostile feelings. But in the large-scale combat that we call war hostile feelings often have become merely hostile intentions. At any rate, there are usually no hostile feelings between individuals. Yet such emotions can never be completely absent from war. Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves as a more or less substitute for the hatred between individuals. Even when there is no natural hatred and no animosity to start with, the fighting itself will stir up hostile feelings: violence committed on superior orders will stir up the desire for revenge and retaliation against the perpetrator rather than against the powers that ordered the action. It is only human (or animal, if you like), but it is a fact.
• …In war, the advantages and disadvantages of a single action could only be determined by the final balance.
• What is the object of defense? To preserve. To preserve is easier than to acquire.
• Surprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of numerical superiority is quite distinct from numerical superiority in general: it is the most powerful medium in the art of war.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)