Winning Wars; The Enduring Nature and Changing Character of Victory from Antiquity to the 21St Century

While ‘winning’ might be considered a fundamental part of the human objective, what constitutes winning and how one might achieve it remain somewhat abstract, in war as in any other human endeavor. ‘Winning’ militarily at the tactical level – in a firefight or a battle – has always been more quantifiable than at the strategic level. At the strategic level, success might be measured by means of three big ideas: ownership; intervention for effect; and fighting for ideas. The divergence between success at the tactical level and the political context of the war creates a challenge at the operational level when it relates to political and strategic matters.

The result of a research project carried out by the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research for the British Army, this book analyses the philosophical constituents of what may comprise ‘victory’ or ‘winning’ and then travels, chronologically, through a wide set of historical case studies, exploring those more philosophical components and weaving them into the factual discussion. Thus the factual relation and analysis is the vehicle for a deeper exploration of the concept of success or ‘winning’, rather than a narrative end in itself.

Table of Contents

Introduction – Sir Hew Strachan

1 ‘Winning’ in Classical Antiquity and the Roman Conception of Victory – Ali Parchami
2 The European Concept of ‘Winning’ in the Middle Ages – John France
3 The Early Modern Period in Europe, 1500–1715 – David Parrott
4 From the Age of Reason to the European Nation State, 1750–1850 – Jonathan Riley
5 ‘Winning’ in World War I, 1914–1919 – Lothar Höbelt
6 ‘Winning’ in the World Wars. The British Conceptions of the War-Time Leaders Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, 1914–1945 – Rob Johnson
7 ‘Winning’ in the Cold War and the Nuclear Age, 1945–1990 – Jonathan Riley
8 Western Strategic Goals and ‘Winning’ in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 – Daniel Marston and Carter Malkasian
9 A Hollow Victory? Assad’s Regime and ‘Winning’ the Conflict in Syria since 2001 – Richard Kuno
10 The Impact of History, Politics and Religion: Three Contrasting Conceptions of ‘Winning’ in Iran since 1979 – Ali Parchami
11 The Chinese Concept of ‘Winning’ – Kerry Brown
12 A Decisive British Victory? The Confrontation with Indonesia, 1963–1966 – Christopher Tuck
13 The Ambiguity of Victory: The Spectrum of ‘Winning’ in African History – Richard Reid
14 The Provisional IRA and the Elusive Concept of ‘Winning’ since 1969 – Aaron Edwards
15 Russian Views of ‘Winning’: ‘Velikaya Pobeda’ ‘pobedonosnaya voina’ – Andrew Monaghan
16 ‘Winning the Peace’: The Peacebuilding Paradigm and its Implications for Peacekeepers in the 21st Century – Nicholas Rees

Conclusion: So, What is ‘Winning’? Andrew Sharpe

MATTHIAS STROHN, MSt (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon), FRHistS, is head of historical analysis at the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research and the British Army’s strategic think tank, visiting professor of military studies at the University of Buckingham, and a member of the academic faculty at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Matthias was educated at the universities of Münster (Germany) and Oxford. He holds a commission in the German Army and is a member of the military attaché reserve. He deployed to Iraq (with the British Army) and Afghanistan (with both the British Army and the German Bundeswehr). Matthias was awarded the highest German military decoration, the ‘Ehrenkreuz der Bundeswehr in Gold,’ and has published widely on 20th-century German and European military history; he has authored and edited over 20 books and numerous articles.