If you want peace, prepare for war. The worst road may be the best route to
battle. Strategy, Edward Luttwak shows, is made of such seemingly
self-contradictory propositions. In this book, Luttwak unveils the peculiar
logic of strategy level by level, from grand strategy down to combat
tactics.If you want peace, prepare for war. A build-up of offensive weapons can be
purely defensive. The worst road may be the best route to battle. Strategy is
made of such seemingly self-contradictory propositions, Edward Luttwak shows -
they exemplify the paradoxical logic that pervades the entire realm of
conflict.; In this revised and expanded work, Luttwak unveils the peculiar logic of
strategy level by level, from grand strategy down to combat tactics. Having
participated in its planning, Luttwak examines the role of air power in the
1991 Gulf War, then detects the emergence of "post-heroic" war in Kosovo in
1999 - an American war in which not a single American soldier was killed. In
the tradition of Carl von Clausewitz, "Strategy" goes beyond paradox to expose
the dynamics of reversal at work in the crucible of conflict. As victory is
turned into defeat by over-extension, as war brings peace by exhaustion,
ordinary linear logic is overthrown. Citing examples from ancient Rome to our
own days, from Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor down to minor combat affrays, from
the strategy of peace to the latest operational methods of war, this book
reveals the ultimate logic of military failure and success, of war and
peace.
