The Clausewitzian Trinity in the Early Days of the Third Millenium
Abstract
"War is...a wonderful trinity, composed of the original violence of its elements, hatred and animosity, which may be looked upon as blind instinct; of the play of probabilities and chance, which make it a free activity of the soul; and of the subordinate nature of a political instrument, by which it belongs purely to the reason." Carl Von Clausewitz wrote this famous definition of the nature of "real war" in the early 1800's and the meaning and implications of this definition have been vigorously discussed by political and military strategists ever since. Continuing this tradition, I assert the contemporary validity of the Clausewitzian definition of the nature of war by highlighting its timelessness and broad applicability to all forms of human conflict. Secondly, I graphically present an alternative intellectual model of the trinity designed to increase the trinity's objective validity when examining the wider context of contemporary conflict in advance of war. Finally, I close by more generally applying the alternative Clausewitzian model to a validation of administration policy on International Public Information as documented in Presidential Decision Directive 68.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA432783
Entities
People
- Dave Trottier
Organizations
- National War College