In this impressive work, van Creveld considers man's use of technology over the past 4,000 years and its impact on military organization, weaponary, logistics, intelligence, communications, transportation, and command. This revised paperback edition has been updated to include an account of the range of technology in the recent Gulf War. 12 photographs.

Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present

History

Van Creveld, Martin

Military

Touchstone

At a time when unprecedented change in international affairs is forcing governments, citizens, and armed forces everywhere to re-assess the question of whether military solutions to political problems are possible any longer, Martin van Creveld has written an audacious searching examination of the nature of war and of its radical transformation in our own time. For 200 years, military theory and strategy have been guided by the Clausewitzian assumption that war is rational—a reflection of national interest and an extension of politics by other means. However, van Creveld argues, the overwhelming pattern of conflict in the post-1945 world no longer yields fully to rational analysis. In fact, strategic planning based on such calculations is, and will continue to be, unrelated to current realities. Small-scale military eruptions around the globe have demonstrated new forms of warfare with a different cast of characters - guerilla armies, terrorists, and bandits—pursuing diverse goals by violent means with the most primitive to the most sophisticated weapons. Although these warriors and their tactics testify to the end of conventional war as we've known it, the public and the military in the developed world continue to contemplate organized violence as conflict between the super powers. At this moment, armed conflicts of the type van Creveld describes are occurring throughout the world. From Lebanon to Cambodia, from Sri Lanka and the Philippines to El Salvador, the Persian Gulf, and the strife-torn nations of Eastern Europe, violent confrontations confirm a new model of warfare in which tribal, ethnic, and religious factions do battle without high-tech weapons or state-supported armies and resources. This low-intensity conflict challenges existing distinctions between civilian and solder, individual crime and organized violence, terrorism and war. In the present global atmosphere, practices that for three centuries have been considered uncivilized, such as capturing civilians or even entire communities for ransom, have begun to reappear. Pursuing bold and provocative paths of inquiry, van Creveld posits the inadequacies of our most basic ideas as to who fights wars and why and broaches the inevitability of man's need to “play” at war. In turn brilliant and infuriating, this challenge to our thinking and planning current and future military encounters is one of the most important books on war we are likely to read in our lifetime.

The Transformation of War: The Most Radical Reinterpretation of Armed Conflict Since Clausewitz

Americas

Free Press

A military historian explores the question of nuclear proliferation, discussing if fear and respect for nuclear weapons will be sufficient to prevent their use.

Nuclear Proliferation and the Future of Conflict

Free Pr

The art of making war is among humankind's earliest professions, stretching far back before the written word, when heroic deeds in battles were carved on stone or recited through poem or song.In this sweeping, lucid history, Martin van Creveld explores military thought and strategy, from the earliest Chinese military thinkers to 20th-century perspectives on terrorism. This incredibly comprehensive book provides the reader with a gripping narrative of how war has been waged in ages past and a glimpse of what war may come to look like in the future.
<ul>
<li>Military theories from Chinese thinker Sun Tzu to experts on guerrilla warfare and the terrorism of today</li>
 <li>Strategies of the Greeks and Romans as they worked to raise armies, discipline them, arm them, and provide them with the means for victory</li>
 <li>The work of military geniuses Adam von Buelow, Antoine Henri Jomini, and Karl von Clausewitz, theorists who devised strategies still in use today</li>
 <li>Modern armored air, naval, and nuclear warfare -- how technology has changed the face of battle</li>
</ul>

The Art of War (Smithsonian History of Warfare): War and Military Thought

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Harper Paperbacks

"War is the most important thing in the world," writes Martin van Creveld, military historian and author of the monumental work, The Rise and Decline of the State. The survival of every country, government, and individual is ultimately dependent on war - or the ability to wage it in self-defense. That is why, though it may come but once in a hundred years, every country must be prepared every day. In spite of the centrality of war to human history and culture, there has long been no modern attempt to provide a replacement for the classics on war and strategy: Sun Tzu's The Art of War, dating from the 5th or 6th century BC, and Carl von Clausewitz's On War, written in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. What is needed is a modern, comprehensive, easy to read and understand theory of war for the 21st century that could serve as a replacement for these classic texts. The purpose of the present book is to provide such a theory.

More on War

Oxford University Press

Martin van Creveld, author of the critically acclaimed Men, Women, and War, turns his attention to one of the most significant figures of the 20th century. With his distinctive eye patch, Israeli military commander Moshe Dayan looked every part the fearsome warrior, yet he was far more. This unflinching biography paints a complete portrait of Dayan the military man and statesman. Starting with his early days in the Haganah, a group of underground Jewish fighters, the biography follows Dyan’s career as a highly decorated star pilot; as the leader of the Israeli forces during the 1967 Six Day War and the October 1973 war; and as a master diplomat who played an instrumental role in negotiating the historic treaty with Anwar Sadat’s Egypt.

Moshe Dayan

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Weidenfeld Nicolson Ltd

Israel is a tiny country. From tip to toe, it stretches 260 miles long but is only 60 miles at its widest point. Since the days of the British mandate, the question of "defensible borders" for the Jewish state has always been problematic. Yet considering the larger picture of what has happened in the Middle East over the last 25 years -- the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the weakening of Syria as a result of the collapse of the USSR, the smashing of Iraq by the U.S -- Israel is, militarily speaking, stronger than ever before. The greatest remaining threats are terrorism and guerilla warfare; and those, this book argues, are best dealt with territorial concessions. This is a compact, incisive study that is certain to draw attention.

Defending Israel: A Controversial Plan Toward Peace

Middle East

Thomas Dunne Books

Israel is a tiny country. From tip to toe, it stretches 260 miles long but is only 60 miles at its widest point. Since the days of the British mandate, the question of "defensible borders" for the Jewish state has always been problematic. Yet considering the larger picture of what has happened in the Middle East over the last 25 years--the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the weakening of Syria as a result of the collapse of the USSR, the smashing of Iraq by the U.S--Israel is, militarily speaking, stronger than ever before. The greatest remaining threats are terrorism and guerilla warfare; and those, this book argues, are best dealt with territorial concessions. This is a compact, incisive study that is certain to draw attention.

Defending Israel: A Strategic Plan for Peace and Security

St. Martin's: Griffin

The Land of Blood and Honey: The Rise of Modern Israel

The definitive one-volume history of Israel by its most distinguished historian From its Zionist beginnings at the end of the nineteenth century through the past sixty, tumultuous years, the state of Israel has been, as van Creveld argues, "the greatest success story in the entire twentieth century." In this crisp volume, he skillfully relates the improbable story of a nationless people who, given a hot and arid patch of land and coping with every imaginable obstacle, founded a country that is now the envy of surrounding states. While most studies on Israel focus on the political, this encompassing history weaves together the nation's economic, social, cultural and religious narratives while also offering diplomatic solutions to help Israel achieve peace. Without question, this is the best one-volume history of Israel and its people.

Analyses the performance of two key parties engaged in fighting during World War II.

Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945 (Contributions in Military Studies)

Praeger

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