If You Want War, Prepare for Peace: The Role of Peace in Clausewitz’s On War

Abstract

This study proposes a new reading of Clausewitz’s On War, with emphasis on the idea of peace. Scholarship regarding the book usually focuses on placing it in historical context or on insights and strategic contexts relevant to our time. For example, a common premise is that Clausewitz encouraged the separation of powers and placed political authority above military authority with the phrase “War is the continuation of policy by other means.” In contrast, this study, by examining the work through the prism of the role of peace, shows that the purpose of the book is to use government and the people instrumentally and lessen their influence on war. This would limit the government’s range of options and leave it with little choice but to accept the military leaders’ recommendations regarding the type of war to be waged. The people also become a tool, i.e., just another means of leaving the country’s defense in the hands of the army.