Making Sense of War

Alan Stephens is a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales Australian Defence Force Academy. Previous appointments include principal adviser to the Australian Federal Parliament's Joint Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, official historian for the RAAF, contributing editor to Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter, military history commentator on ABC television, and RAAF pilot. Nicola Baker is a lecturer on Strategic Studies at the University of New South Wales Australian Defence Force Academy. She has worked as a consultant to various Australian defence organisations and written on a range of military and strategic issues.

• Preface; Introduction; 1. How to wIn - the nature of strategy; 2. Stove-piped strategy - the schools of strategic thought; 3. Traditional warfighting concepts and practices - what strategy has been; 4. Manoeuvre and the application of force - applying strategy; 5. Shaping the strategic environment - making strategy work; 6. Strategic paralysis - strategy as an ideal; 7. Contemplating war - political imperatives and strategic considerations; 8. Constraints on war - strategy, legality and prudence; 9. Controlling war - soldiers, civilians, and the optimum use of force; 10. Peacemaking - intervening to protect and repair; 11. War in the twenty-first century - the end of strategy?; Select bibliography.

"This carefully crafted and well-researched book draws on Clausewitz, Jomini, Machiavelli and Sun Tzu and uses relevant historical events as examples." David A. Anderson, Military Review