steve on Nostr: “Military Strategy: A General Theory of Power Control” by J. C. Wylie ...
“Military Strategy: A General Theory of Power Control” by J. C. Wylie
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J.C. Wylie was a US naval officer who served from WWII in to the early 1970s. In “Military Strategy”, Wylie presents a well-structured argument for a general theory of war that bridges the work of previous theorists, going as far back as Clausewitz. He divides up his arguments by domains and reaches a singular conclusion: war isn’t about destruction, it is about control. Armies, navies, and air forces are all tools meant to leverage some form of control over an adversary. This in turn, reinforces the idea that military strategy is subordinate to a nation’s grand strategy. After all, a state can control another thru economic sanctions or diplomatic coercion just as well as they can employ violence in the field. While I generally agree with Wylie’s thesis, his book does make some glaring generalizations and cherry-picks evidence to suit his point. Despite its analytical flaws, Wylie’s theory is especially useful today in the nuclear age. Plus, it’s a short read at ~140 pages… no excuses!
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J.C. Wylie was a US naval officer who served from WWII in to the early 1970s. In “Military Strategy”, Wylie presents a well-structured argument for a general theory of war that bridges the work of previous theorists, going as far back as Clausewitz. He divides up his arguments by domains and reaches a singular conclusion: war isn’t about destruction, it is about control. Armies, navies, and air forces are all tools meant to leverage some form of control over an adversary. This in turn, reinforces the idea that military strategy is subordinate to a nation’s grand strategy. After all, a state can control another thru economic sanctions or diplomatic coercion just as well as they can employ violence in the field. While I generally agree with Wylie’s thesis, his book does make some glaring generalizations and cherry-picks evidence to suit his point. Despite its analytical flaws, Wylie’s theory is especially useful today in the nuclear age. Plus, it’s a short read at ~140 pages… no excuses!