Bøker av Thomas Waldman

This compelling account charts the historical emergence of vicarious warfare and its contemporary prominence. It contrasts its tactical advantages with its hidden costs and potential to cause significant strategic harm.

America has been at war for most of the 20th and 21st centuries and during that time has progressively moved towards a vicarious form of warfare, where key tasks are delegated to proxies, the military's exposure to danger is limited, and special forces and covert instruments are on the increase. Important strategic decisions are taken with minimal scrutiny or public engagement. This compelling account charts the historical emergence of this distinctive tradition of war and explains the factors driving its contemporary prominence. It contrasts the tactical advantages of vicarious warfare with its hidden costs and potential to cause significant strategic harm.

Despite the increasing volume of research on state building, the use and uptake of findings by those involved in policy-making remains largely under-examined. As such, the main themes running through this book relate to issues of research influence, use and uptake into policy. It grapples with problems associated with decision-making dynamics.

In this book, Waldman explores Clausewitz's central theoretical device for understanding war - the 'remarkable trinity' of politics, chance, and passion. Through an in-depth reinterpretation of On War and Clausewitz's other writings, conducted through the prism of the trinity and in the light of contemporary scholarship on war.