THE TRANSFORMATION OF WAR

by Marlin van Creveld ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 4, 1991

The intellectual heir of Herman Kahn is alive and thinking the unthinkable in Jerusalem, where he teaches what must be a demanding version of history at Hebrew University. In appraising the nature and conduct of war (broadly defined here as organized violence) over the years, van Creveld (Technology and War, 1988; History/Hebrew Univ.) dismisses the comforting notion that the world is on the verge of a millennium marked by peaceful economic competition among trading blocs. Marshalling much anecdotal evidence from the past and present, he argues that the global village is entering an unhappy era of low-intensity conflicts between ethnic and religious groups, which threaten the very existence of industrial powers as well as their less developed counterparts. In reaching his grim conclusions, the author challenges Clauswitzean doctrines long accepted as gospel by conventional strategists. He questions the relevance of modern military might (given that the use of nuclear weapons is effectively foreclosed) and the idea of national interest--a concept so entrenched that policy makers treat it as ""equivalent to rationality."" Along similar lines, van Creveld characterizes war as ""grand theater,"" pointing out that many men revel in it to the point where, given a choice, they would probably forsake women before battle. In the event, he's convinced that the state's capacity to monopolize violence is faltering. Nor does he believe prospects for combating or even containing terrorism, grass-roots insurgencies, and allied belligerencies are other than bleak. A wide-ranging analysis of armed force that's consistently perceptive and chillingly credible.

Pub Date: March 4, 1991

ISBN: 0029331552

Page Count: -

Publisher: Free Press/Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1991

Categories: NONFICTION