ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some general approaches to the study of war and places the present approach next to other schools of thought on the topic. It discusses the notion of paradox, defining and illustrating it in a social and philosophical context. The systematic study of war goes back to ancient China, with the perceptive observations of Sun Tzu in the sixth century B.C. The process of war is usually taken to consist of three stages, only one of which entails pure fighting. These stages are: the initiation stage, the management stage, and the termination stage. Strategy is the art of using military force to accomplish political ends. Traditional strategic approaches assume that the strategist takes over when political elites have decided to take the military route in pursuing their goals. The decision-making approach examines the initiation, management, and termination of war as a series of problem-solving sessions involving groups of leaders.
