War, Chaos, and History

War, Chaos, and History considers the implications of the emerging field of research in chaos-complexity-non-linearity for the study of war. This study examines the special dependence of military professionals on history in their shaping of doctrines, style, and attitudes in spite of the wide gap between the portrayal of war in military history and the far greater intricacy of its reality. Special foci in the analysis include: the fragility of doctrine; the chronic confounding of plans and expectations in actual operations; the congruences of chaos and creativity theoretics; effects of war on the environment; and problems of evidence and reportage. Three cases--battle cruisers, tank destroyers, and heavy fighter aircraft--are presented to illustrate paradoxes, especially the gap between vision and realization, and the tension between the urge to control and the impulse to create chaos in war.

Author: Roger Beaumont
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 11/21/1994
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9780275949495

About the Author

ROGER BEAUMONT has taught history at Texas A&M since 1974. He served two tours of active duty with the army as a military police officer. A cofounder and former North American editor of Defense Analysis, Beaumont was the first historian named as a Secretary of the Navy Fellow at the U.S. Naval Academy. The most recent of his 10 books and monographs is Joint Military Operations: A Short History (Greenwood, 1993).