|
The book is reminiscent of the doomsday flicks of the late 60s and early 70s, particularly Soylent Green. Most of these predictions have already turned out to be quite overblown. If you watch that movie with Heston, you'll not need to read this book. I'm giving this book three stars because it at least will challenge the reader intellectually. The book makes a number of predictions based on what was appearing to be a start of a trend back in 1990.
Which completely surprizes me with it being set in the middle of such an amazing work. Again this was written 16 years ago.I only gave this four stars because with the obvious knowledge that the author has, the conclution that the modern state and its military is going to come crumbling down is completely wrong. If you do not have a good understanding of each of these areas, then reasoning of this book will be lost on you. Over all this an excellent work and is a must read for those who want to learn about war and how it is wage. That made this author not one of the current glut of the new trend of writting on counterinsurgency, Islam, and the current trends of warfare now. This is one of the best books that I have read on war.
The author writes the book with the assuption that the reader as an indepth understanding of all these areas. Even given the date of this book I find the conclusion too large of a stretch, making it an emotional arguement and one not based on sound scholary work. The book covers history, government, religion, economics, law (both domestic and international). The author speaks of many of the same techniques as the new Army/Marine's counterinsurgency manual. It is also superior to most of all the new books that have been published in the last five years. All of these areas are apart of warmaking.
The age of this book having been written in the early 90's is what caught my eye.
I would compare this book (of the same topic) with others like James Dunnigan (of How to Make War fame) or books by Peter Drucker (who write books about management, but can also be applied to war). Creveld's message does help put wars like Iraq into proper context. Again, I highly recommend this book not only for its important message, but also for its clarity. I highly recommend this book be on the US Army's Chief of Staff reading list for officers (if it has not already been done). This is one of those rare books whose message is not only important, but presented in a format that is easily understood.
A state that is well led and aware of the dangers of low-intensity conflicts can survive byadopting the same techniques and exporting the conflict as much as possible. Plus it has infinite resources compared to a small group of, say, terrorists. In any case today it does a lot more than putting armies in the field and collecting taxes.
There is a lot in it. My major gripe is that it equates the modern state to a war making organization: when classic armies disappear, the state disappears too. read this book with very high expectations based on the reviews.
The modern state probably was born as the most effective warmaking organization of his time but others could argue that it was born as the most efficient task collecting organization of his time. Unfortunately, on one thing van Creveld may be right, that this will force the state to adopt terrorists' techniques. Some of it is right, some is not (e.g.
the workings of the Roman Army are oversimplified).
He is also very critical against the current military-industrial complex and its super-expensive creations of high tech weapons, saying that all this paraphernalia of old war are like dinosaurs about to face extinction. The accuracy of his predictions is often so amazing that it becomes terrifying, especially when he states that in the future the war leaders will not be legitimate government officials but something like "The Old Man in the Mountains", meaninig the kind of warfare waged by assassins in the Middle Ages. Van Creveld does not avoid to touch even hot topics, like the sheer joy of fighting (paraphrasing Clausewitz he states that war is more the continuation of sports by other means than politics) the taboo of introducing women in the armies, the role of religion in the motivation of war and the very important argument that war does not begin when someone is willing to kill but when he is willing to die for a cause.
Van Creveld's thesis is that war as we know it in the last 3,5 centuries (waged between states and organized armies) has reached its end and is now in a process of radical tramsformation. While reading the book there were many cases when I was dumbfounded by the fact that a writer completing his work near the end of the Cold War could see our era with such a clarity, and I was really amazed by the fact that the book was written in 1991. When I finished reading this book I could hardly believe that a writer could prophesize the future war events in such a clear way.
It is more modern than anything else I have read on the subject of modern war and surpasses even contemporary analysis. This is a highly recommended book and it is sure that it will change many of your establised views on war. Analyzing many examples from the military history he suggests that we are entering into an era where states lose the monopoly of waging war and confront non-state actors who do not embrace the same philosophical values.
Van Creveld overturns Clauzewitz's traditional views one by one, using very convincing arguments, and unfortunately he is confirmed by international events today.
|
