On War
…war consists of a continuous interaction of opposites.
A description of war that, had it been written today, would probably be categorized as “systems thinking.” More than a century later, Wohlstetter wrote a related description of
a kind of study that attempts to discern and answer questions affecting policy — specifically affecting a choice of ends and of means to accomplish ends that stand a good chance of being opposed by other governments.In Book VIII, Chapter III, Clausewitz discusses at length the overwhelming complexity of understanding all the possible ramifications and possibilities when opposed forces interact. In this sense, the work of systems analysts represents the latest efforts devoted to an enterprise stretching back deep into history. Perhaps this was the first systems problem the human mind encountered, since war’s nature assures a negative feedback loop between opposing forces (Clausewitz’s description of this nature was that “In war, the will is directed at an animate object that reacts”).
…Potential opposition at any rate is an essential.
