This scholarly and original study of military thought during the nineteenth century focuses on the wider conceptions of war, strategy, and military theory which dominated the West in this period. Azar Gat's penetrating analysis uncovers the intellectual assumptions and picture of the past which underlay military policy and practice.

From the ideas of Clausewitz to contemporary doctrines of containment and cold war, this is a definitive history of modern military thought. A one-volume collection of Azar Gat's acclaimed trilogy, it traces the quest for a general theory of war from its origins in the Enlightenment. Drastically re-evaluating B.H. Liddell Hart's contribution to strategic theory, the author argues that in the wake of the trauma of the First World War, and in response to the Axis challenge, Liddell Hart developed the doctrine of containment and cold war long before the advent of nuclear weapons. He reveals...

In this meticulously researched book, Azar Gat overturns recent historiographical trends in the study of British and German armour developments between the two world wars. He dispels some of the serious allegations levelled against leading British armour theorist B.H. Liddell Hart, placing his ideas in their proper relation to those of other leading British theorists and to the practice of British armour formations during that period. Again reversing recent revisionist literature, Professor Gat then shows how
decisively the creators of the German Panzer arm were influenced by British...

In the blink of an eye, liberal democracy's moment of triumph was darkened by new threats, challenges, and doubts. Rejecting the view that liberal democracy's twentieth-century victory was inevitable, distinguished student of war Azar Gat argues that it largely rested on contingent factors and was more doubtful than has been assumed. The world's liberal democracies, with the United States at the forefront, face new and baffling security threats, with the return of capitalist nondemocratic great powers--China and Russia--and the continued threat of unconventional terror. The democratic peace,...

Azar Gat sets out to resolve one of the age-old questions of human existence: why people fight

A marked shift in the balance between these options has occurred since the onset of the industrial age. Rather than modern war becoming more costly (it hasn't), it is peace that has become more rewarding. Scrutinizing existing theories concerning the decline of war--such as the 'democratic peace' and 'capitalist peace'--Gat shows that they in fact partake of a broader Modernization Peace that has been growing since 1815. By now, war has disappeared within the world's most developed areas....

This volume brings together some of Professor Azar Gat's most significant articles on the evolution of strategic doctrines and the transformation of war during the 20^th and early 21^st centuries.

The volume begins with the rise of the Panzer arm and the doctrine of Blitzkrieg during the interwar period. It ends with the spread of peace in the developed world, and the threats to it still represented by China, Russia and unconventional terror. This last essay summarizes the author's latest research and has not previously been published.

This collection...