ABSTRACT
Military necessity requires prudent and careful judgment on the part of commanders in the field in their application of deadly force – doing so judiciously, proportionately, and only against legitimate military targets. For the nearly two centuries since its posthumous publication in 1830, Karl von Clausewitz’s On War has served as the locus classicus for military strategy and tactics. Indeed, Clausewitz was thoroughly acquainted with Isaac Newton’s work, a century earlier, and On War itself is explicitly and self-consciously Newtonian, heavily reliant on metaphors drawn from classical dynamics. The preponderance of influence of Clausewitz on military theory and education persists, despite the fact that contemporary military practice increasingly bears little resemblance to the conventional wars from which it derived. In the highly charged and decidedly unconventional political atmosphere that is contemporary armed conflict, that is to say, ethics is absolutely inseparable, indeed indistinguishable, from sound military and political strategy.
