Carl Von Clausewitz: War as Politics by Other Means

According to Carl Von Clausewitz, War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will. It is used to counter against the enemy with the use of modern types of equipment or armaments. It is a physical force where two opposing forces try to outwit each other for the sake of victory. Also, attached to this force are some limitations such as the International Law and custom. Thus the means of war is to impose our will on the enemy is its object. In order to win one must render the other powerless because it is the true purpose of warfare.

What is War?

War has various types of element down to its parts and sections and then War has various types of element down to its parts and sections and then finally its internal structure as a whole. From simple to complex, war must be understood by its nature as a whole because war doesn't work separately but as one.

To begin with, the elements, let us start with the Maximum Use of Force. Kind-hearted people would always think of an alternative way of fighting without too much bloodshed, and this is what they believe to be the true purpose of warfare. It may sound real, but war is dangerous which kindness produces the worst outcome of a war. Because in reality even if one will use maximum force and the other doesn't, the one who applied it will always win.

Next, The Aim Is To Disarm the Enemy, as already said the aim for war is to deprive or reduce the capabilities of using armaments of the enemy. Third, The Maximum Exertion of Strength, if one wants to overcome the other then it must exert his full potential to destroy the resistance of the other.

The author made a good idea and a very interesting discussion regarding war. He used the words nature and purpose to emphasize his concept about war based on his experience with Napoleonic Wars. For me, the strength of the article is the whole idea of war as it is understood that its true nature or purpose is to outwit the opponent with brute force in order to achieve victory in every battle.

Even with great strength, it still comes with weakness and that is by being inaccurate or incomplete. Not all of the ideas or concepts of Clausewitz are applicable in today's future war since there are many factors that affect battles. One reason that I consider the article weak is that it is based mainly on Napoleonic Wars because of that every small detail that can be considered in waging wars were not included. For example, the effective use of modern technology which can be a big factor in battle.

For me, reading the chapter 1 of the book was a good choice since it introduces to us the main or true nature of war. And not only that, but it can also be easily understood because it uses words which were not too complicated. Starting from the introduction up to the end of the chapter, we can clearly interpret the meaning of each idea presented.

I don't like much the concepts presented by the author, because I am more fan of Sun Tzu than him. Because for me, going to war doesn't need to be a bloodbath but only to use minimum effort to achieve the goal. And that is what I believe that is why I am against Clausewitz in some of his ideas.

In conclusion, war with or without the use of full force is still a war. And considering some other factors affecting the war, things don't go the way we want to because it is a battle of the minds. Even though we follow these principles of war we can never tell if we will win or not because that is where the strategies of each side will be used in order to determine the winner.

In connection to the article, for me, we must avoid the use of maximum force since it will only lead to a massive loss on both sides. That is why it is much better to avoid it than utilizing your full potential just only to achieve the end of your mission. Lastly, in war, it is not necessary to fight a bloodshed battle as long as you can achieve victory against the enemy without the use of it.