The Art of War

Much underrated today, this Swiss-French military theorist once rivalled & eclipsed Prussia's great Clausewitz. While the latter is infinitely thorough, but antisystematic, Jomini's approach is rationalist, spatial, aiming at economy & elegance. His central ideas:

1) The basic, presumably eternal principle of successful warfare is to concentrate as much force as possible in attacks on key enemy vulnerabilities.

2) Obvious, but easier said than done? The rest of Jomini's work is about precisely how this violent effect may be achieved. But an essential simplifying device is that the enemy will always, in some form or other, present a front line - with its left, right, & centre. The task for the strategist or grand tactician may thus, almost show more invariably, be boiled down to analyses of whether to concentrate attack on the enemy's centre or on either of his 2 extremities.

With this spare, almost skeletal main apparatus, Jomini works wonders at clarifying the complexity of war & strategy. Time & again, he insists that such simplifying principles do not stand alone as determinants of success. They are more necessary than sufficient - a resource for the already accomplished commander & his forces (but may still, on occasion, prove enough on their own to give one side a decisive edge).

Jomini remains a luminous supplement & corrective to modern military theory's fixation on the "chaos" & "unpredictability" of war. Yet this chaos is a reality too. The very flawlessness of Jomini's abstractions are what makes it perilous, even suicidal, to study him in isolation.

(This paperback edition comprises only Parts I-III of the 1838 original, but features a conscientious modern introduction on the history, reception, & posterior influence of Jomini's work.) show less