Principles of War

The closing lesson for the teenage heir to the Prussian throne, ending on the friction that wrecks plans and a charge to be bold.

by Carl von Clausewitz219 passages held

German, the original language

Original title: Die wichtigsten Grundsätze des Kriegführens
First published: 1834(published posthumously)
Original language: German

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Overview

The essay is addressed throughout to a single reader, the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, whom Carl von Clausewitz had been teaching military science since 1810, when the prince was fifteen. Before leaving for Russian service in 1812, Clausewitz wrote out the conclusions of the course in four parts: principles for war in general, tactics, strategy, and how to keep to any of it once the fighting starts. Theory, he tells the prince, must reckon with moral forces as well as numbers — the enemy's probable mistakes, the impression a bold stroke makes, even one's own despair — and anyone who teaches otherwise is a pedant. The tactical and strategic advice is concrete, drawn from Frederick the Great's battles, Leuthen among them, and from Napoleon's at Regensburg and Wagram. The principles are simple, Clausewitz argues; the difficulty lies in staying true to them in execution, because war works like a machine with enormous friction, and a plan drawn easily on paper is carried out only with great effort. He sends the prince to military history in detail rather than to historians' conclusions, recommends his own teacher Gerhard von Scharnhorst's account of the defence of Menin in 1794 as a model, and closes by urging him to be bold in design, firm in execution and ready for a glorious end. The word friction later became a chapter title in On War. His widow, Marie von Clausewitz, printed the essay in 1834 in an appendix to its third volume, together with other military papers, among them his sketches for a treatise on tactics. J. J. Graham translated it with On War in 1873, and Hans W. Gatzke's version appeared in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1942 as Principles of War.

Key concepts

What are moral forces in Clausewitz's Principles of War?

They are everything in war that numbers do not capture, and theory has to count them. Clausewitz names the enemy's probable mistakes, the impression a bold stroke makes, even a commander's own despair. A theory that reckons only with troops and positions leaves out forces as real as the numbers, and whoever teaches war that way is, in his word, a pedant.

What is friction, as Clausewitz explains it to the Crown Prince?

It is the resistance that real war puts up against every plan. War, Clausewitz tells the prince, works like a machine with enormous friction: a plan drawn easily on paper is carried out only with great effort. That is why the principles are simple and yet hard to keep, and why the last part of the course is given to execution rather than design.

Why study military history in detail rather than through historians' conclusions?

Because conclusions strip away the circumstances in which a decision was actually made. Clausewitz sends the prince to military history in detail, not to what historians concluded from it, and recommends his teacher Gerhard von Scharnhorst's account of the defence of Menin in 1794 as a model. Only the detail shows the friction and the moral forces that the principles have to reckon with.

What does “bold in design, firm in execution” ask of a commander?

Two different virtues for two different moments. In design a commander should dare, reaching for the stroke whose effect goes beyond the numbers; in execution he should hold to the plan against the friction and doubt that pull at it. Clausewitz closes the Principles with this charge to the prince, together with the demand that he be ready for a glorious end.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Simple Principles, Hard Execution

If the principles of war are simple, why are they so hard to keep? Clausewitz told his royal pupil that the difficulty lies not in knowing them but in holding to them once the fighting starts.

Theory, he insisted, must reckon with moral forces as well as numbers: the enemy's probable mistakes, the impression a bold stroke makes, even one's own despair, and whoever teaches otherwise is a pedant. The advice on tactics and strategy is concrete, drawn from Frederick the Great's battles, Leuthen among them, and from Napoleon's at Regensburg and Wagram. But war works like a machine with enormous friction, and a plan drawn easily on paper is carried out only with great effort. Hence the closing charge: be bold in design, firm in execution.

military theory
military strategy
tactics
planning
uncertainty
risk
courage
morale
perseverance
judgment
decision-making
command
leadership
military leadership

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 219
distinct concepts: 211
by passages held, corpus-wide: #329

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “defense” and “military strategy”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 26 pairings. 83 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
defense	military strategy	24
decision-making	military strategy	20
combat	military strategy	15
command	military strategy	14
military strategy	tactics	14
military organization	military theory	9
command	military organization	7
command	military theory	5
military organization	military strategy	5
command	decision-making	4
military theory	tactics	4
combat	decision-making	3
combat	military organization	3
combat	military theory	3
command	tactics	3
decision-making	military organization	3
military organization	tactics	3
combat	defense	2
combat	tactics	2
defense	tactics	2
combat	command	1
command	defense	1
decision-making	defense	1
decision-making	military theory	1
defense	military theory	1
military strategy	military theory	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

1812 Political Declaration (Bekenntnisdenkschrift)
Its plan for a people's rising returns in the chapter of On War on arming the people; the memorandum itself is a manifesto rather than theory, and it ends by predicting that every future war would be fought as a national cause.
DE
1832 On War (Vom Kriege)
A far larger successor to the principles he drafted for the Prussian Crown Prince in 1812, it fills the first three of the ten volumes of his posthumous works and is the book his reputation rests on.
DEEN
1834 Principles of War (Die wichtigsten Grundsätze des Kriegführens) you are here DE

— or open another of their works