EMW-Syllabus
Spring Semester 2006
Evolution of Modern Warfare
For Graduate Students of International Studies
Jae Chang Kim
Course Concept
This course is to introduce students to the complexities of war policies
and military strategies so that they can establish a theoretical foundation
for understanding how modern warfare has been evolved. The course
consists of two parts: first, basic strategic theories of famous strategists;
second, major wars that the world experienced. The focus of this course
is also on the relationship between a nation’s political interests and
objectives on the one hand and the way military force has been used in
an attempt to serve them on the other. The course is taught through a
combination of lectures, presentations, and discussions.
(The contents of the syllabus will be subject to modification.)
Requirements:
1. Class Participation: 20%
2. Mid-term exam: 40%
3. Final Exam or A Review Essay: 40%
Books required to purchase:
Peter Paret, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the
Nuclear Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986)
Books recommended to purchase:
Carl Von Clausewitz, On War, Michael Howard and Peter Paret, trans.
(Peinceton: Princeton University Press, 1984); Sun-Tzu, The Art of
Warfare, Roger T. Ames trans, (New York: Ballantine Books, 1993); B. H.
Liddel Hart, Strategy (New York: Praeger, 1967)
Mar. 3. Introduction:
Overview of the Course.
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War and its Causes:
Mar. 10. Carl Von Clausewitz:
Reading assignment: Michael Howard, Clausewitz (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1983), p. 22-58
Further Readings: Carl Von Clausewitz, On War, Michael Howard and
Peter Paret, trans. (Princeton University Press, 1984), Book I, II, III; Chs.
1-10, 16; IV, Chs. 1-3; VI, Chs. 1-6; VII, Chs 1-5; VIII, pp 75-123, 127203, 216-219, 225-229, 357-359, 479-483, 524-528, 577-640.
Mar. 17. Sun Tzu and his key teachings:
Reading assignment: Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Roger T. Ames, trans.
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1993) Chs. 1-13, pp. 101-172
Mar. 24. Liddell Hart and Mao Tse Tung:
Reading assignments: B. H. Liddel Hart, Strategy (New York: Praeger,
1967), p. 319-p. 360; Selected Military Writing of Mao Tse Tung
(Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1972), ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5., p. 77-152
Mar 31. Peloponnesian War:
Reading assignments: Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War,
trans., by Rex Warner (New York: Penguin Books, 1972), Book One: 3587; 143-151; Book Two: 156-165; Book Three: 194-212; 236-245;
Book Four: 265-278; 334-347; Book Five: 400-408; Book Six: 414-429;
447-449; 465-470; Book Seven: 525-537.
Apr. 7. American Civil War: The First Total War:
Reading assignments: James McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the
Second American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991),
ch. 1: The Second American Revolution, pp. 3-22, ch. 4, Lincoln and the
Strategy of Unconditional Surrender, pp. 65-91; ch. 7: Liberty and Power
in the Second American Revolution, pp. 131-152; Bruce Catton, The Civil
War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1960), ch. XIV, The Politics of War,
pp. 202-217; ch. XV, Total Warfare, pp. 218-231.
Further Readings: James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (New York:
Ballantine Books, 1988), ch. 10, pp. 308-338.
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Apr. 14. World War I:
Reading assignments: Gordon Craig, The Politics of the Prussian Army
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956), Ch. 5, pp. 180-216; Peter Paret,
ed., Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), Chs. 10-11, Hajo Hollborn,
“The Prusso-German School: Moltke and the Rise of the General Staff;
“Gunther E. Rothenburg, “Moltke, Schlieffen, and the Doctrine of
Strategic Envelopment,” pp. 281-325;
Further Readings: John Keegan, The First World War (New York: Knopf,
1998), chs. 1-3, (A European Tragedy. “War Plans,” “The Crisis of
1914,” pp. 48-70; William Murray and Allan Millett, Military
Effectiveness, 3 vols. (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1988), Vol. I, Chs 1, 2, 3,
6, 9 (“The Effectiveness of Military Organizations,” “Britain in the First
World War,” “The Dynamics of Necessity: German Military Policy during
the First World War,” “The French Army in the First World War,”
“Military Effectiveness in the First World War”), pp. 1-115, 190-228,
329-350.
Apr. 21. Mid-term Exam
Apr. 28.
A. Military Transformations During the Interwar Period
and Blitzkrieg:
Reading assignments: James Corum, The Roots of Blitzkrieg: Hans Von
Seeckt and German Military Reform (Lawrence, KS: University Press of
Kansas, 1992), chs. 2, 6, “Von Seeckt and Rethinking Warfare,” “The
Development of German Armor Doctrine,” pp. 25-50, 122-143.
Further Readings: Millett and Murray, Military Effectiveness, Vol. II, Chs.
1-2, 4, 7-8, “The Soviet Armed Forces in the interwar Period,” “The
French Armed Forces, 1918-40,” “The British Armed Forces, 1918-39,”
“Military Effectiveness of Armed Forces in the Interwar Period, 19191941: A Review,” pp. 1-69, 98-130, 256-268.
B. Naval Thought in the Age of Mahan:
Reading assignment: Philip Crowl, “Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Naval
Historian,” in Paret, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy, ch. 16, pp. 444-477.
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Further Readings: Charles H. Fairbands, Jr., “The Origins of the
Dreadnought Revolution,” International History Review 13: 2 (May 1991):
246-72; Holger Herwig, “The German reaction to the Dreadnought
Revolution,” International History Review 13: 2 (May 1991): 273-83.
May. 5. World War II:
Reading assignments: John Keegan, The Second World War (New York:
Penguin Books, 1989), Part One: 54-87; Part Two: 127-141; 173-208;
Part Three: 240-250; 251-267; Part Four: 310-319; Part V: 536-545;
588-595.
Further Readings: Millett and Murray, Military Effectiveness, Vol. III: The
Second World War (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1988), ch. 5: The
Effectiveness of the German Military Establishment in the Second World
War, pp. 180-220, ch. 8: Military Effectiveness in the Second World War,
pp. 277-319, ch. 9: Challenge and Response at the Operational and
Tactical Levels, 1914-45, pp. 320-340, ch. 10: The Political and
Strategic Dimensions of Military Effectiveness, pp. 341-364.
May. 12. Aircraft Carrier and U.S. Pacific War:
Reading assignment: Thomas C. Hone, Norman Friedman, & Mark D.
Mandeles, American & British Aircraft Carrier Development 1919-1941
(Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, Maryland, 1999), ch 4,5,6, p. 83-143.
Further Reading: p. 144-199; Allan R. Millet and Williamson Murray ed.,
Military innovation in the Interwar Period (Cambridge University Press:
New York, 1996), ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, pp. 6-119.
May. 19. The Cold War:
Thomas H. Etzolt and John Lewis Gaddis eds., Containment; Documents
on American Policy and Strategy, 1945-1950 (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1978), pp. 25-37, 50-63; Terry L. Deibel and John
Lewis Gaddis eds., Containing the Soviet Union : A Critique of US Policy
(New York: Pergamon-Brassey’s), ch. 2: pp. 15-19; ch. 5. Containment
and the Strategic Nuclear Balance, pp. 78-99; ch. 7: Containment and the
Shape of World Politics, pp. 120-135, ch. 8: The “X” Article and
Contemporary Source of Soviet Conduct, pp. 139-153.
David Alan Rosenberg, Reality and Responsibility: Power and Process in
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the Making of United States Nuclear Strategy, 1945-68, in the Journal of
Strategic Studies, pp. 35-52.
Further Readings: John Gaddis, Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United
States (New York: Wiley, 1978), ch. 6 & 7; John Mueller, “The Essential
Irrelevance of Nuclear Weapons,” and Robert Jervis, “The Political
Effects of Nuclear Weapons,” International Security, 13:2 (Fall 1988), pp.
80-90; Yuen F. Khong, “The Lessons of Korea and the Vietnam Decision
of 1965,” in George W. Breslauer and Philip E. Tetlock, eds., Learning in
US and Soviet Foreign Policy (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991), 302349.
May. 26. Chinese Use of Force during the Cold War:
Reading assignment: Jonathan R. Adelman and Chih-Yu Shih, Symbolic
War: The Chinese Use of Force 1840-1980 (Taipei: Institute of
International Relations, National Chengchi University, 1993), ch. 10:
Korean War, pp. 171-192, ch. 11: The Quemoy Crisis, pp. 193-200, ch.
12: The Sino-Indian War, pp. 201-209, ch. 13: The Sino-Soviet Border
Conflict, pp. 210-220, ch. 14: The Sino-Vietnam War, pp. 221-230.
Further Readings: Melvin Gurtov and Byong-Moo Hwang, China Under
Threat: The Politics of Strategy and Diplomacy (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, ), ch. 2, 3, 4, 5, pp. 25-186; Harlan W. Jencks,
“China’s Punitive War on Vietnam: A Military Assessment, Asian Survey,
Vol. XIX, No. 8, Aug. 1979; Thomas J. Christensen, “Threat, Assurances,
and the Last Chance for Peace: The Lessons of Mao’s Korean War
Telegrams,” International Security, vol. 17, No. 1, (1992); Yufan Hao and
Zhai Zhihai, “Chinese Decision to Enter the Korean War: History
Revisited,” The China Quarterly, No. 121 (March 1990)
Jun. 2.
A. Regional Wars after the Cold War
Reading assignment: Norman Cigar, “Iraq’s Strategic Mindset in the
Persian Gulf War: Blue Print for Defeat,” Journal of Strategic Studies 15:
1 (March 1992): pp.1-29; Stephen Biddle, “Victory Misunderstood: What
the Gulf War Tells Us about the Future of Conflict,” International
Security 21: 2 (Fall 1996): pp. 139-79; Thomas G. Mahnken and Barry D.
Watts, “What the Gulf War Can (and Cannot) Tell Us about the Future of
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Warfare,” International Security 22: 2 (Fall 1997): pp. 151-162.
B. Post Modern Militaries:
Reading assignment: Eliot A. Cohen, “A Revolution in Warfare.” Foreign
Affairs 75: 2 (March/ April 1996): 37-54; Lawrence Freedman, “ The
Changing Forms of Military Conflict,” Survival 40: 4 (Winter 1998-99):
pp. 39-56.
Further Readings: Charles C. Moskos, “Toward a Postmodern Military:
United States as a Paradigm” in Charles C. Moskos, John Allen Williams,
and David R. Segal, eds., The Postmodern Military: Armed Forces after
the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 14-31;
Michael Howard, “Military Science in an Age of Peace,” Journal of the
Royal United Services Institute 119: 1 (March 1974): pp. 3-11.
Jun. 9. Future War:
Reading assignment: Martin Van Creveld, The Transformation of War:
The Most Radical Reinterpretation of Armed Conflict since Clausewitz
(New York: The Free Press, 1991), ch. 7, pp. 192-227; Jeffery R.
Barnett, Future War: An Assessment of Aerospace Campaigns in 2010
(Alabama: Air University Press, 1996,) ch. 1, pp. 1-20; Kurt M. Campbell
and Michele A. Flournoy, To Prevail: An American Strategy for the
Campaign against Terrorism (Washington, D.C.: The CSIS Press, 2001),
ch. 1-5, pp. 1-63; Mandelbaum, M., “Is Major War Obsolete?,” Survival,
vol. 40, No. 4 (Winter 1998/ 1999)
Further Readings: Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. an Richard H. Shultz, Jr., ed.
War in the Information Age: New Challenges for US Security (Virginia:
Brassey’s Books, 1997), Section I, pp. 1-79;
Jun. 16. Final Exam
The End.
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