Military Strategy: The Politics and Technique of War

Concentrating on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and with particular emphasis on strategic practice in Western democracies from the Second World War to the ‘War on Terror’, Stone examines the function of strategy (defined as ‘the instrumental link between military means and political ends’) and argues that effective strategy reflects the political context in which it is derived. Like Clausewitz, he sees politics as the key determinant and argues that an overemphasis on techniques and technologies frequently leads to failure.