Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the “moral” (in modern terms, psychological) and political aspects of war.

He stressed the dialectical interaction of diverse factors, noting how unexpected developments unfolding under the “fog of war” (i.e., in the face of incomplete, dubious, and often completely erroneous information and high levels of fear, doubt, and excitement) call for rapid decisions by alert commanders. He saw history as a vital check on erudite abstractions that did not accord with experience. Clausewitz had many aphorisms, of which the most famous is “War is the continuation of politics by other means.”