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Carl von Clausewitz was a practical soldier of wide experience, a historian and a historical philosopher, and a political theorist. His values and intrinsic beliefs, more than his specific ideas, have given his work an enduring power of persuasion. It is his refusal, above all else, to let his mind be restricted to a narrow point of view that should serve as an example to the modern professional.
Clausewitz's ideas are timeless because they address universal conditions: uncertainty, rule-breaking, strategic endgames, and competition. His theories are not based on current economic conditions; rather, they lead to strategy based on powers of observation, a broad exploration of the opportunity, a willingness to be flexible, and an instinctive sense of judgment.
Carl Von Clausewitz
Carl von Clausewitz as a man is as worthy of consideration as the work itself. His values and intrinsic beliefs, more than his specific ideas, have given his work an inner coherence and an enduring power of persuasion. It is his refusal, above all else, to let his mind be restricted to a narrow point of view that strikes the modern professional as exemplary.
Clausewitz was a complicated man of both action and thought, and he left a complicated legacy. The meaning and practical impact of his theories are subjects of hot debate, and the lessons taken from his works vary widely, depending on the times, the circumstances, and the interpreter.
To assess the value of his ideas, therefore, it is important to understand Clausewitz as a living personality. He was much more than a military academic. He was a practical soldier of wide experience, a historian and a historical philosopher, and a political theorist. Personally sensitive, shy, and bookish, he could also be passionate in his politics, in his longing for military glory, and in his love affair with his wife—with whom he built an intellectual partnership that draws modern attention for reasons having little to do with his military reputation.
Clausewitz's First Editor, Marie von Clausewitz
Struck down by cholera at the age of 51, in the prime of life and at a time of renewed ascendancy in his career, Clausewitz was well short of completing the work to which he had dedicated most of his intellectual energies.
It was left to his wife, Marie Countess von Brühl, whose happy life with Clausewitz was well known in Prussian society and who was his unlikely but capable intellectual companion in his inquiries into the nature of war, to undertake the posthumous publication of his disorganized manuscripts. The book appeared in 1832 under the title On War (Vom Kriege).
From On War
On strategic genius
"If the mind is to survive this constant battle with the unexpected, two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that even in this moment of intense darkness retains some trace of the inner light that will lead it to the truth, and second, the courage to go where that faint light leads."
On the role of strategic theory
...all principles, rules, and methods increasingly lack universality and absolute truth the moment they become a positive doctrine. They are there to present themselves for use. Judgment must always be free to determine whether or not they are suitable. Criticism must never use these results of theory as laws and standards, but only as a person acting in war should also do: as aids to judgment."
On risk
"It is not true that we should always choose the case with the least uncertainty. That would be a terrible mistake, as all of our theoretical deliberations show. There are instances in which the most daring course of action is the wisest choice."
From the editors
On making quality decisions in turbulent times
On War (1832), Clausewitz's magnum opus, has never been in danger of derision or oblivion. It deserves, now more than ever, the full attention of the modern business strategist. It offers new ways to order thinking in disorderly times and to achieve steadiness in charting strategy in an unstable environment.
On bidding farewell to tools
Ultimately, Clausewitz's philosophy demands that commanders and executives not merely think when formulating strategy, but that they arrive at a stage where they literally think strategy. The full meaning of this idea is at odds with the notion of "tools" in strategy. Although the appropriate use of tools has become almost synonymous with good management, and their merits are incontestable in many areas, carrying the concept into the realm of strategy has weakened the strategic spirit.
On uncertainty
Having established the clash of opposing wills at the center of strategic thinking, Clausewitz can proceed to dismantle the false hopes of planning that so often creep into strategy. Uncertainty in strategy is not merely an inability to forecast external events but – far more importantly – the consequence of the indeterminacy of events brought about by intelligent and resourceful opposition. Because Clausewitz's metaphors of friction and fog so clearly capture the inevitability of uncertainty, they have become important well beyond the military arts. True strategists must not lament uncertainty, but must embrace it as the wellspring of their art.
Clausewitz on Strategy: Inspiration and Insight from a Master Strategist
- The Strategy Institute of The Boston Consulting Group
- Acknowledgements
- Prelude
- Introduction
Marie von Clausewitz: Preface from 1832
The Genius of Strategy
- The Coup d'Oeil
- Theory in the Service of Genius
The Theater of Strategy
- The Clash of Wills
- Friction
Thinking Strategy
- Tactics and Strategy
- Simple, but Not Easy
- Attack and Defense
- Elements of Strategy
- Dynamics of Strategy
The Virtures of Strategy
- Moral Forces
- The Virtues of the Army
- The Moral Virtues of the Commander
Beyond Strategy
Tiha von Ghyczy
Faculty member at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. He is a fellow of the Strategy Institute of The Boston Consulting Group. As a former partner at BCG, he was an active member of the firm's Manufacturing/Time-Based Competition and Technology and Communication practices.
Bolko von Oetinger
Senior partner and managing director of The Boston Consulting Group and director of the firm's Strategy Institute. He is a member of BCG's Technology and Communications practice and has published several articles and books on strategy and innovation.
Christopher Bassford
Professor of Strategy at the National War College in Washington D.C. A former U.S. Army artillery officer, he is the author of several books, including Clausewitz in English: The Reception of Clausewitz in Britain and America and The Spit-Shine Syndrome: Organizational Irrationality in the American Field Army. For more about Bassford and Clausewitz, visit Clausewitz.com.
