by Cheryl Rofer
The Clausewitz Roundtable, sponsored by Chicago Boyz, is drawing to its close. A number of us have read the book in concert (well, parts of it anyway) and offered up our comments. Here are my last two posts, which summarize my views.
Returning to That Business About the Continuation of Policy
I'm pleased to have participated; this was probably the only way I would have made myself read this famous book. Various of my mentors have found it useful and passed down some of its ideas to me, but I do like to form my own opinions of something like this.
I'll recommend the book as well worth reading. However, as Clausewitz notes, he never really completed it, and it shows. Some sections are much longer and more detailed than others, and some are disorganized. If you want to read it, feel free to skip the sections you really can't bear rather than bog down. For general strategists like me, the best parts are the first few "books," as Clausewitz calls them, and the last. But the middle chapters contain some striking insights, too, like that defense is more powerful than offense.