Abstract:
War and war-related concepts constitute a considerable portion of key words in political literature and strategic-security studies. Apart from its theoretical significance, war is a palpable term for the individuals and political players. It is a serious threat to humanity that has been paid due attention in the course of history by the political philosophers, strategists and even ordinary people as a highly challenging social phenomenon. Therefore, war has always imposed and will always impose its impact on the ordinary life of people. Many thinkers have written on war thus far, but few of them like Tzu, Jomini, Hart and Carl von Clausewitz have managed to introduce a novel discussion on war and create outstanding work on military issues. Clausewitz, among them, introduced warfare in a quite new form in his magnum opus “On War” to create an unrivaled work on one hand, and exert influence on strategic thought on warfare on the other hand. In his book, he bestowed a futuristic and comprehensive insight on warfare issues upon political scientists. Clausewitz’s influence and perspicacity on war have introduced his thought as the completing piece of the puzzle on nature of war and as a great help to the military and political analysts. As a key member of continental school of military thought, Clausewitz could introduce to and redefine new terms such as friction, strategy, center of gravity, opportunity and chance in the military literature and promote popular war in a sense. His reinforced attitude toward war is an inseparable trinity of enmity, chance and subordination. This paper intends to study the concept and dimensions of war in Clausewitz’s doctrines.
Machine summary:
Clausewitz, War, Clausewitzian Nature of War, Trinity, Copernicus Revolution Introduction "Politics since ancient times has been after promotion of human societies and polishing human deed and creed through expressing beliefs and viewpoints of renowned thinkers and philosophers, like Prometheus.
According to Boston Consulting Group’s Institute of Strategy, Clausewitz’s masterpiece is still the most general, applicable and enduring modern work of strategy and a source of insight into the nature of conflict still exerting great influence on analyses, theories and all the issues related to war and strategy.
In this connection, we will continue with studying nature of people’s war and come up with Clausewitzian nature of war, Clausewitzian trinity of subordination, chance and violence, Copernicus revolution of Clausewitz or the same continuation of war and politics and end up with disclosing the connection between war and politics in Clausewitz’s thought.
Responding his critics, Clausewitz says that from political point of view, people’s uprising is usually realized when ceaseless violence out of war destroys the ordinary structure and situation all at once.
(Hahlweg, 2006) Clausewitzian Trinity of War For Clausewitz, a real war is made of three factors known as the dominant tendencies: people (manifesting violence, sentiments and enforcement of popular will), army (indicator of reciprocal impact of chance and instability that are both key features of military operation) and government (indicator of the importance of politics in selecting the goals, allocation of tools, controlling gradual increase in intensity and vastness of war).