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INTRODUCTION: The Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) is widely acknowledged as the most important of the classical strategic thinkers. Even though he's been dead for nearly two centuries, he remains a powerful living influence: the most frequently cited, the most controversial, and in many respects the most modern of strategic theorists. ClausewitzStudies.org is intended as a central source for scholarly information, related texts, articles, and arguments about the man, his ideas, and their meaning, reception, impact, and utility. ClausewitzStudies.org is overseen by the seven members of the Clausewitz Studies Board.

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NavigationMAIN CONTENT — To access our main content categories, see the navigation bar at the top of your screen. The key ClausewitzStudies categories are Bibliographies, Readings, Texts, and Search. FAQs, Videos, Graphics, and Bookstore point to resources at Clausewitz.com.

FEATURED READINGS

*** SPECIAL ISSUE: Andreas Wilmes and Andreas Herberg-Rothe, eds., Special Issue: "Clausewitz as a Practical Philosopher," Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence (PJCV), Vol. VI (Issue 1/2022), pp.1-109. With articles by Andreas Herberg-Rothe, Terence M. Holmes, Andrée Türpe, Bilgehan Emeklier & Nihal Emeklier, Guilel Treiber, Maciej Witkowski, and Olivia A. Garard. Table of Content with Abstracts and Links.

Article: Paul Donker, "The Evolution of Clausewitz's Vom Kriege: a reconstruction on the basis of the earlier versions of his masterpiece," an updated translation of Paul Donker, "Die Entwicklung von Clausewitz' Vom Kriege: Eine Rekonstruktion auf der Grundlage der früheren Fassungen seines Meisterwerks" in the Clausewitz-Gesellschaft's Jahrbucher 2017, 14-39.

Working Paper:  Christopher Bassford, "Clausewitz's Categories of War and the Supersession of 'Absolute War,'" ClausewitzStudies.org, 16 MAR 2020. What?!! "Ideal War" and "Absolute War" aren't the same thing?

Review Essay: Bruno Colson [U. Namur], "Clausewitz for Every War," War in History, 18(2) [2011], pp.249-261.

Article: Alan D. Beyerchen, "Clausewitz, Nonlinearity and the Unpredictability of War," International Security, 17:3 (Winter, 1992), pp. 59-90. (Here's the Abstract.)

Article: Jon T. Sumida, "The Clausewitz Problem," Army History, Fall 2009, pp.17-21. This is a short, well-crafted, and useful précis of Sumida's controversial arguments in his book, Decoding Clausewitz: A New Approach to On War. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2008.

Blog: Steve Leonard, "'You Really Think I'm Irrelevant? LOL.' A Letter to Clausewitz Haters from Beyond The Grave," West Point: Modern War Institute, USMA, 6 May 6 2020. Beyond the blog, the modification of the portrait—we see a new, sterner-looking Clausewitz—is interesting but highly questionable.

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"The Other Clausewitz."
This is V. Bellinger's earlier Clausewitz.com blog about Marie von Clausewitz. For her current blog, see "Clausewitz Studies on Twitter."

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SISTER SITE

On our sister site Clausewitz.com, there is a great deal of ancillary information (e.g., on Clausewitz-related tourism, souvenirs, graphics, humor, books, business strategy) that may also be of use to those of us researching, writing, or teaching about Clausewitz.

Together, the two sites are designed to accommodate anyone interested in understanding human strategies, including not only scholarly researchers on Clausewitz but also students and faculty in professional military education (PME) institutions, business schools, and other organizations concerned with human competition and conflict.

For those of us with $48,500.00 to spare.

Clausewitz's Collected Works, First Edition

Item #3777. Hinterlassene Werke des Generals Carl von Clausewitz über Krieg und Kriegführung (Berlin: Trowibsch and son for Ferdinand Dümmler, 1832-1837). 10 volumes, 8vo (202 x 120 mm). Two folding engraved maps and one folding table. (Some light spotting mainly to the edges, faint dampstain in the margin of vol. 3, short tears at map folds.) Contemporary green quarter calf, flat spines ruled in gilt and blind, lettered and numbered directly in gilt (spines lightly faded). Highly scarce in such fine condition.

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