The Strategy Makers: Thoughts on War and Society from Machiavelli to Clausewitz

244 Pages·2010·1.414 MB·English

by  Beatrice Heuser

The Strategy Makers
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The Strategy Makers
Thoughts on War and Society from
Machiavelli to Clausewitz
BEATRICE HEUSER
Praeger Security International
Copyright 2010 by Beatrice Heuser
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief
quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The strategy makers : thoughts on war and society from Machiavelli
to Clausewitz / [compiled by] Beatrice Heuser.
p. cm. — (Praeger security international)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-275-99826-4 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-275-99827-1 (ebook)
1. War—Philosophy. 2. Strategy. 3. Military art and science—Philosophy.
I. Heuser, Beatrice, 1961–
U21.S755 2010
355'.0335—dc22 2010021205
ISBN: 978-0-275-99826-4
EISBN: 978-0-275-99827-1
14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
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For Cyril
Je conçus que la guerre est le premier des arts,
Et que le peintre heureux des Bourbons, des Bayards,
En dictant leurs leçons, était digne peut-être
De commander déjà dans l’art dont il est maître.
Mais je vous l’avoûrai, je formai des souhaits
Pour que cet art si beau ne s’exerçât jamais
Et qu’enfin l’équité fit régner sur la terre
L’impracticable paix de l’abbé de Saint-Pierre.
[I concede that warfare is the first of the arts,
and that the lucky painter of the Bourbons and the Bayards1
in drawing lessons {from their fighting} may merit
commanding in this art of which he is a master.
But I confide in you that I would hope
that this beautiful art will never be exercised
and that finally, equity would make reign on earth
the impracticable peace of the Abbé de Saint-Pierre.2 ]
(Voltaire about the writings of Guibert)3
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction: Themes and Context of Literature on Strategy 1
2 Raimond de Beccarie de Pavie, Seigneur de
Fourquevaux (1548) 32
3 François de Saillans—Bertrand de Loque (1589) 50
4 Matthew Sutcliffe (1593) 62
5 Don Bernardino de Mendoza (1595) 87
6 Paul Hay du Chastelet (1668) 103
7 Santa Cruz de Marcenado and Zanthier (1724–30/1775) 124
8 Count de Guibert (1772) 147
9 August Rühle von Lilienstern (1816) 171
Notes 191
Selected Bibliography 209
Index 225
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Preface and Acknowledgments
There are several purposes to this book. One is to resurrect wisdom
long forgotten that is still of great relevance today. Some ideas in these
early works are attributed currently to later, more modern authors, who
either reinvented the wheel or actually took the ideas from these earlier
texts. The excerpts printed here have been selected primarily because of
their enduring relevance; texts or passages dealing with purely techni-
cal or tactical details, long overtaken by changing technology, have been
omitted.
The second purpose is to find out something about the strategic think-
ing of the period, that is, for what political purposes and with what
aims the authors thought wars could and should be waged. Passages of
politico-military relevance have been included that give us information
about strategic war aims, even though the text itself was aimed lower, per-
haps at the level of the commanding officer, and not at that of the supreme
political decision maker. Several texts provide an introduction to thinking
about the purpose and conduct of war, against the background of different
cultures, mentalities, and world views.
A third purpose is to make these texts accessible to readers unfamiliar
with their languages, which, given today’s use of English, includes even
Elizabethan English. I have thus not only provided translations into Eng-
lish of texts and passages originally written in French, German or Spanish,
Italian, Latin or Greek, but I have also modernized some English texts.
Where the original words were quite different, I have inserted them in
square [] brackets. Insertions for the clarification of the text are marked
in {} brackets (parentheses). A four-dot ellipses (. . . .) indicates the end of