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The Utility of Force

The Art of War in the Modern World

By Rupert Smith

(2)

| Hardcover | 9780307265623

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Book Description

“War no longer exists,” writes General Sir Rupert Smith, powerfully reminding us that the clash of mass national armies—the system of war since Napoleon—will never occur again. Instead, he argues in this timely book, we must be prepared to adapt tactics to each conflict, oContinue

“War no longer exists,” writes General Sir Rupert Smith, powerfully reminding us that the clash of mass national armies—the system of war since Napoleon—will never occur again. Instead, he argues in this timely book, we must be prepared to adapt tactics to each conflict, or lose the ability to protect ourselves and our way of life.

General Smith draws on his vast experience as a commander in the 1991 Gulf War, in Bosnia, Kosovo and Northern Ireland, to give us a probing analysis of modern war and to call for radically new military thinking. Why, he asks, do we use armed force to solve our political problems? And how is it that our armies can win battles but fail to solve the problems?

From Iraq to the Balkans, and from Afghanistan to Chechnya, Smith charts a stream of armed interventions that have failed to deliver on promises of resolution. He demonstrates why today’s conflicts must be understood as intertwined political and military events. He makes clear why the current one-size-fits-all model of total war, fought out on battlefields, that politicians still cling to must be abandoned in favor of new strategies that take into account the fact that wars are now fought among civilian populations. And he offers a compelling new model for how to fight these battles—and secure our world.

Clear, incisive and provocative, The Utility of Force will fundamentally change the way we understand war.

Critics

  • What is it good for?

    The Utility of Force by General Sir Rupert Smith 428pp, Allen Lane, £25 The New Western Way of War by Martin Shaw 183pp, Polity Press, £13.99 It seems tautologous to say that there is something wrong with war. Morally wrong, of course, but also wrong ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Ameliorate, Contain, Coerce, Destroy

    Karl von Clausewitz, the greatest of all military theorists, learned the art of war the hard way. As a senior Prussian officer, he was on the receiving end of the Napoleonic revolution in warfare at the Battle of Jena in 1806, ending up a prisoner. W ... (read full critics)

    nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

2 Reviews

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  • Not as groundbreaking as people thought but still fun to read. You cannot expect too much from a book written by a military anyway...

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    Derek Yuen said on May 23, 2007 | Add your feedback

  • Model major-general

    THE emphasis on making war has shifted, for most western nations, from "organising our forces to defend our territory" to "using them to secure our people and our way of life". General Sir Rupert Smith, the British officer who commanded the UN forces in Bosnia a decade ago, the B ... (continue)

    THE emphasis on making war has shifted, for most western nations, from "organising our forces to defend our territory" to "using them to secure our people and our way of life". General Sir Rupert Smith, the British officer who commanded the UN forces in Bosnia a decade ago, the British armoured division in the first Gulf war and, later, all the troops in Northern Ireland, has a long and varied experience of the new warfare. His first book, "The Utility of Force", ought to be read, marked and inwardly digested by anyone responsible for committing armed forces to military operations ...

    http://www.economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?
    story_id=5327742

    Is this helpful?

    The Economist Test said on Feb 7, 2006 | Add your feedback

Book Details

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  • English Books
  • Hardcover 448 Pages
  • ISBN-10: 0307265625
  • ISBN-13: 9780307265623
  • Publisher: Knopf
  • Pub date: Jan 16, 2007
  • Dimensions: 1548 mm x 1097 mm x 258 mm Just how big is that?
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