ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the idea that a nation's military capability multiplied by the national will to fight must be greater than that of an enemy to prevail in a conflict. The likelihood of success in achieving national foreign policy goals against a competitor may be drawn from a set of characteristics determined by a view on the threat being posed. In military education, where future senior officers and their civil service counterparts are groomed for high office, such basic calculations have become key indicators of military prowess – applied as much as an assessment of one’s own ability to enact foreign policies as it has to other belligerents. In national security terms, and increasingly since 1945, this same calculation has gradually been refined by various states to one that places equal emphasis on military capability and will to fight. Western societies have proven themselves remarkably resilient to systemic shocks.
