- Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Allen Lane (29 Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0713998369
- ISBN-13: 978-0713998368
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 473,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
John Keegan, The Daily Telegraph
[This is] a book that will assure Smith's reputation as a serious and original thinker among soldiers and strategists.
Product Description
Why do we use military force to solve our political problems? And why do our forces win the military battles but this fails to solve those problems? It is because the force used lacks utility. From Iraq to the Balkans, and from Afghanistan to Chechneya, over the past fifteen years there has been a steady stream of military interventions that have not delivered on their promise for peace, or even political resolution. The Utility of Force explains this anomaly at the heart of our current international system. Reaching back to Napoleon and ahead to our future, this book fundamentally changes the way to understand war.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In the 1970's John Keegan in his seminal book "Face Of Battle" speculated whether battle was dead. It is but not for the reasons that he proposed (which was essentially that more and more people would be unwilling to fight). However conflict certainly isn't and it is the move from what Smith states is "industrial war" ie wars between states with formalised armies and recognisable events called "battles" to what he terms "wars between peoples" which doesn't recognise nationalities but rather is fighting within societies which is at the heart of this brilliant book. He starts with a gallop through military history since the early 1800's culminating with the last of the true nation wars - those of Israel/Arab states in the early 1970's (The Falklands is really an special case as is the 1991 Gulf War). He describes how wars between peoples are fundamentally different from those industrial wars of the past. The key point is that modern armies have yet to recognise fully that fact - something that vested interests within western forces have got to face upto. With the new type of warfare, the old heavy army (tanks, big guns etc) is inappropriate - something he comments upon when discussing the Israeli response to the Intifada where the use of armour (for perfectly understandable reasons) inflamed the situation. He describes the characteristics of war between peoples with great clarity (and also how peacekeepers are shackled by political decisions - forces operating in that role are directed that the most important thing is not to lose casualties rather than fufillment of the mission). He finally describes his own personal experiences (which illustrate his points) in the early 1990's in Bosnia where he was command of UNPROFOR. It is a superb read and highly recommended. I do have one criticism though: there are very, very few references - no bibliography for instance. A book like this does not come fully formed in a vacuum. It would have been nice to see where he got his ideas from. However it will still get a 5* rank!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
General Smith's book is not one for the feint hearted - but if, like me, you are serving in one of the armed forces that is struggling to re-configure from one built to fight the Cold War but deployed to fight War Among the People, then you need to read it.
I agree with the reviewer who found it hard going, but if you want a thinking soldier's view of how the paradigm has changed and why we must change with it, then you leave this book on the shelf at your peril. It is detailed, but incisive. As for its alleged failure to address in detail the issue of assymetry, the previous reviewer clearly missed the central points of General Smith's thesis - that war as we knew it no longer exists and therefore the concept of assymetry is no longer valid. The author contends that huge armoured formations capable of massing phenomenal combat power became obsolete with the development of battlefield nuclear weapons designed to target that very mass. Their utility as a deterrent was superceded by the superpowers' appetite and capacity for MAD. Although we have seen such massed armoured formations loosed in battle on several occasions post-war, General Smith contends that these were not wars, but periodic and short-term deviations from a rhythm that sees a steady state of confrontation periodically interupted by short and sharp interludes of conflict.
The Utility of Force argues that heavy armoured formations are not suitable for conducting the War Among the People that characterises the more prevalent periods of confrontation. That is to say that while they might represent an overwhelming balance in terms of combat power they lack utility. Afghanistan and Iraq prove this to be the case.
For those whose who would like a bit of a pre-emptive strike to prepare the way, I would suggest you take a look at Martin van Crefeld's The Changing Face of War. An easier and shorter read, its sets down similar building blocks upon which Smith's thesis is pinned. But don't skip the main course - The Utility of Force is worth working through and a far more rewarding read than recent publications from Smith's near contemporaries. For any commissioned officer engaged in or preparing for counterinsurgency operations, it is essential reading. Even more so for the politicians and civil servants who have a hand in developing and funding the armed forces' changing capabilities.
I agree with the reviewer who found it hard going, but if you want a thinking soldier's view of how the paradigm has changed and why we must change with it, then you leave this book on the shelf at your peril. It is detailed, but incisive. As for its alleged failure to address in detail the issue of assymetry, the previous reviewer clearly missed the central points of General Smith's thesis - that war as we knew it no longer exists and therefore the concept of assymetry is no longer valid. The author contends that huge armoured formations capable of massing phenomenal combat power became obsolete with the development of battlefield nuclear weapons designed to target that very mass. Their utility as a deterrent was superceded by the superpowers' appetite and capacity for MAD. Although we have seen such massed armoured formations loosed in battle on several occasions post-war, General Smith contends that these were not wars, but periodic and short-term deviations from a rhythm that sees a steady state of confrontation periodically interupted by short and sharp interludes of conflict.
The Utility of Force argues that heavy armoured formations are not suitable for conducting the War Among the People that characterises the more prevalent periods of confrontation. That is to say that while they might represent an overwhelming balance in terms of combat power they lack utility. Afghanistan and Iraq prove this to be the case.
For those whose who would like a bit of a pre-emptive strike to prepare the way, I would suggest you take a look at Martin van Crefeld's The Changing Face of War. An easier and shorter read, its sets down similar building blocks upon which Smith's thesis is pinned. But don't skip the main course - The Utility of Force is worth working through and a far more rewarding read than recent publications from Smith's near contemporaries. For any commissioned officer engaged in or preparing for counterinsurgency operations, it is essential reading. Even more so for the politicians and civil servants who have a hand in developing and funding the armed forces' changing capabilities.
13 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a very studious work and would no doubt go down well as a thesis at any military college. Clearly a great fan of Clausewitz (he gets a mention every few pages) he analyses conflicts from the day dot to the present day and explains the outcome in the form of Clausewitz's trinity. The book takes a long time to get going and then dries up towards the end, the final hundred pages felt like a hundred years.
His coverage of modern warfare and in particular assymetric warfare was wafer thin. There is nothing new within this book that is worth reading it. Do not waste your money.
A much better read, and one the actually addresses the subject, is "The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century" which covers all of the ground that this book does and then goes forward intelligently. Smith gets the point when he comments that adopting new technologies without changing how you operate is futile, but does not examine how the current crop of new technolgies might be employed.
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