Abstract:
The conduct of war, like the practice of medicine, is an art,
and because the aim of the physician and surgeon is to prevent,
cure, or alleviate the diseases of the human body, so should
the aim of the statesman and soldier be to prevent, cure, or
alleviate the wars which inflict the international body. Unfortunately this has been little appreciated, and while in recent
times the art of healing has been placed on a scientific footing,
the conduct of war has remained in its alchemical stage; worse
still, during the present century it has reverted to its barbaric
form of destruction and slaughter.
Should the reader doubt this, let him look back on the two
world wars. Should he be content with their conduct, this book
is not for him. Should he not be, then he cannot fail to see that
instead of being curative they were baneful. The cure has been
worse than the disease: an entire epoch has been upheaved and
submerged as if by a global Krakatoa. Empires have vanished,
Europe has been tom asunder, Germany divided, and revolution stalks the world. Today, fear of annihilation grips every
heart; no longer are there any signs of stability, or feeling of
security, and, as bad, no bonds of honour or even of common
decency bind the nations together.
Europe has seen many wars; for a thousand years war has
been the constant occupation of her turbulent peoples. Nevertheless, not one of them since the Thirty Years’ War has been
so catastrophic as the wars of the present century. Yet the
reason is not to be sought in war itself, but in its conduct as
related to the great revolutions since 1789: the decay of
aristocracy and the advent of democracy, the developments
of industry and capitalism, the emergence of the masses and of
socialism, the progress of science and the advances in technology, the growth of populations and the popular press, the
decay of religion and ever-advancing materialism. All these
