Planning versus Chaos in Clausewitzs On War TERENCE M. HOLMES Swansea University, UK ABSTRACT Clausewitz impress great emphasis on the patternned construction of warf atomic number 18, scarce this idea has received little management from his commentators, who commonplacely attach out-of-the-way(prenominal) greater vastness to what he said most the topsy-turvy elements of war, in accompaniment its interactive nature and the grinding infixed from its conduct. This article gives extensive-overdue recognition to preparation as a paramount theme of On War. The native point Clausewitz makes concerning interaction is non that the rivals responses be bound to disrupt our contrives, plainly that our plans must aim to predict and combine his responses. Clausewitz acknowledges that friction creates enormous difficulties for the doctrine of any plan, but it is just now in respect of this altercate that he develops the concept of military genius, whose capabilities be seen above all as the executive arm of planning. make WORDS: Clausewitz, planning, chaos Did Clausewitz regard war planning as a contradiction in apostrophize? His description of war as a continuous interaction of opposites (p.136)1 in which my opp superstarnt . . . enjoins to me as often as I install to him (p.

77) seems to imply that neither location could hope to conduct its duty operations in symmetry with a preconceived plan. Nor are the enemys countermeasures seen as the only hindrance to the realization of a plan: there is withal the problem of friction, the incalculable slight malfunctions and mishaps which immix to lower the general level of performance, so that one ceaselessly falls furthest short of the intended destination (p.119). How long could any plan survive in such(prenominal) a doubly resistant specialty? According to Beatrice Heuser, Clausewitz wrote that no war plan outlasts the first encounter with the enemy, a view that was echoed by Moltke.2 That is so a well-known sagaciousness of Field Marshal 1All page come effrontery in my textual matter refer to Carl von Clausewitz, On...If you want to puddle a full essay, order it on our website:
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