In 2004, Lind proclaimed the arrival of 4GW – a fundamental change in the conduct of war. To become a practionner of the third generation of warfare, your organisation needs to have fully adopted the tenets of mission command. The only true proponents of the third generation of warfare were the German Army at the end of the First World War and in the early part of the Second World War. Lind argues that most western armies reached and maintained development to the second generation of warfare. The second generation was pioneered by the French in the First World War and is characterised by the coordination of firepower and manoeuvre.

This was first generation warfare and the start of what Van Creveld describes as the ‘Clausewitzian Universe’, in which war is waged by states due to irreconcilable differences in policy, as highlighted by the first quote. With the state came the state’s monopoly on violence thereafter, war became something waged by states, with state armies doing the fighting. The Treaty of Westphalia established territorial sovereignty and the right of self-determination orientated towards religious belief within recognised boundaries. John Hauser reminded us recently that prior to the Thirty Years War, religion played the primary role in international engagement within European politics. To recap, the first generation of warfare put forward by Lind starts in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War and gave birth to the modern state system.

Why is this book so important and why did I find its conclusions so disturbing? Peace of Westphalia 1648 Lind argues that this is Van Creveld’s ‘finest work to date’ and easily ‘the most important book on war written in the last quarter-century’. This article will provide a short review of the Transformation of War by Martin Van Creveld, which is the seventh and final book in ‘The Canon’. I embarked on this journey recently, and the results and the conclusions I drew were both eye opening and disturbing. These seven books provide a military professional with an introduction to the theory of the four generations of warfare (4GW). War is simply a continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means Carl von ClausewitzĪnd the nature of the case first compelled us to advance our empire to its present height fear being our principal motive, though honour and self-interest came in afterwards Thucydidesīrigadier Field and William Lind have both highlighted the importance of ‘The Canon’.

Martin van creveld fighting power