Azar Gat

War in Human Civilization

Azar Ga.t

Chair of the Department of Political Science Azar Gat

From ideas of Clausewitz to contemporary doctrines of containment & cold war, this is a history of modern military thought. It explores conceptions of war, strategy, & military theory, relating them to their cultural & historical contexts.

From the Enlightenment to the Cold War

A History of Military Thought

From the Stone Age to Today's Culture Wars

Ideological Fixation

This book sheds new light on the origins and nature of modern military thinking. The ideas of Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)--which remain at the core of strategic analysis today--have previously been examined apart from their 18th-century cultural and philosophical roots. Gat here demonstrates the extent to which culture affects military theory by relating a series of military thinkers to their cultural backgrounds. He also provides a provocative critique of Clausewitz's classic work On War, and demonstrates how the major currents of modern military thought have evolved from the cultural frameworks and historical outlooks of both the German Movement and the Enlightenment.

From the Enlightenment to Clausewitz

The Origins of Military Thought

Why do people go to war? Is it rooted in human nature or is it a late cultural invention? How does war relate to the other fundamental developments in the history of human civilization? And what of war today - is it a declining phenomenon or simply changing its shape? In this truly global study of war and civilization, Azar Gat sets out to find definitive answers to these questions in an attempt to unravel the 'riddle of war' throughout human history, from the early hunter-gatherers right through to the unconventional terrorism of the twenty-first century. In the process, the book generates an astonishing wealth of original and fascinating insights on all major aspects of humankind's remarkable journey through the ages, engaging a wide range of disciplines, from anthropology and evolutionary psychology to sociology and political science. Written with remarkable verve and clarity and wholly free from jargon, it will be of interest to anyone who has ever pondered the puzzle of war.

In the blink of an eye, liberal democracy's moment of triumph was darkened by new threats, challenges, and doubts. Rejecting the view that liberal democracy's twentieth-century victory was inevitable, distinguished student of war Azar Gat argues that it largely rested on contingent factors and was more doubtful than has been assumed. The world's liberal democracies, with the United States at the forefront, face new and baffling security threats, with the return of capitalist nondemocratic great powers--China and Russia--and the continued threat of unconventional terror. The democratic peace, or near absence of war among themselves, is a unique feature of liberal democracies' foreign policy behavior. Arguing that this is merely one manifestation of much more sweeping and less recognized pacifist tendencies typical of liberal democracies, Gat offers a panoramic view of their distinctive way in conflict and war. His book provides a politically and strategically vital understanding of the peculiar strengths and vulnerabilities that liberal democracy brings to the formidable challenges ahead. Published in cooperation with the Hoover Institution

Why Democracy Won in the 20th Century and how it is Still Imperiled

Victorious and Vulnerable

Zeev Maoz

Essays tracing the changing nature of war in relation to global and regional changes

War in a Changing World

In this scholarly and original study of military thought during the nineteenth century Azar Gat continues and expands the themes he explored in his previous book, The Origins of Military Thought from the Enlightenment to Clausewitz (Oxford Historical Monographs, 1989). The present volume spans the period from the aftermath of the Napoleonic era to the outbreak of the First World War. Encompassing Prussia/Germany, France, Great Britain, the United States of America and the Marxist theory later to gain sway in Russia, The Development of Military Thought focuses on the wider conceptions of war, strategy, and military theory which dominated the West in this period. Dr. Gat's penetrating analysis uncovers the intellectual assumptions and picture of the past which underlay military policy and practice.

The Nineteenth Century

The Development of Military Thought

In the blink of an eye, liberal democracy's moment of triumph was darkened by new threats, challenges, and doubts. Rejecting the view that liberal democracy's twentieth-century victory was inevitable, distinguished student of war Azar Gat argues that it largely rested on contingent factors and was more doubtful than has been assumed. The world's liberal democracies, with the United States at the forefront, face new and baffling security threats, with the return of capitalist nondemocratic great powers_China and Russia_and the continued threat of unconventional terror. The democratic peace, or near absence of war among themselves, is a unique feature of liberal democracies' foreign policy behavior. Arguing that this is merely one manifestation of much more sweeping and less recognized pacifist tendencies typical of liberal democracies, Gat offers a panoramic view of their distinctive way in conflict and war. His book provides a politically and strategically vital understanding of the peculiar strengths and vulnerabilities that liberal democracy brings to the formidable challenges ahead. Published in cooperation with the Hoover Institution

Why Democracy Won in the 20th Century and How it is Still Imperiled

Alexander Yakobson

A groundbreaking study of the foundations of nationalism, exposing its antiquity, strong links with ethnicity and roots in human nature.

The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism

Nations

Why do humans go to war? Have we been waging war ever since we first existed as a species? Is a propensity to wage war part of what it is to be human, or more a result of the evolution of human society? And has there been a decline in war-making over time - or is this just a pious hope?Azar Gat here draws together insights from evolutionary theory, anthropology, history, historical sociology, and political science to address these fundamental questions about the history of our species - the answers to which also have big implications for our species' future survival.The book reveals that theories regarding the recent decline of war, such as the "democratic peace" and "capitalist peace", capture merely elements of a broader Modernization Peace that has been growing since the onset of the industrial age in the early 19th century.

Azar Gat

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