Masters of war: Classical strategic thought

(Curso CF Tarapow) (NCC 2013)

Introduction

1. Strategy: Past theories, modern practice

2. Comparing Sun Tzu and Clausewitz

3. The definition of war: A question of the level of analysis

4. Clausewitz and Mao Tse-tung on theory and practice in war

5. "Attacking the ememy's plans" and the concept of "The center of gravity": Eastern psychology and Western mechanics

6. The primacy of politics and the military commander

7. The rational calculus of war: Correlating ends and means

8. Clausewitz on the role of "Moral forces" in war

9. The supreme act of judgment: Understanding the "Nature of war" and the "Trinitarian analysis"

10. The first element of the paradoxical trinity: The people in arms

11. The ideal and the real: Victory without bloodshed and the search for the decisive battle

12. Speed, numerical superiority and victory

13. The principle of continuity and the culminating point of victory: The contradictory nature of war

14. Clausewitz on war termination

15. Deception, surprise and intelligence

16. On military leadership

17. Boldness and calculation

18. Corbett, Clausewitz and Sun Tzu

19. Conclusions: Towards a Unified Theory of War

Appendix A: Contradiction and paradox in the Theory of War

Appendix B: The Weinberger doctrine

Appendix C: Clausewitz's ideal-type method applied to Sun Tzu's "The art of War"

Appendix D: Clausewitz's "On War" as a Gestsalt or a systemic theory

Appendix E: The problem of the level of analysis and the "Tacticization of Strategy"

Appendix F: Clausewitz and the Principle of Concentration