Clausewitz and absolute war in Nuclear Age

• Grant number: 15/14829-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): October 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Rodrigo Duarte Fernandes dos Passos
• Grantee: Anna Carolina Monéia Farias
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Clausewitz, a Prussian general, proposed reflexions about war and politics observed through the context of Napoleonic wars, which the author has participated actively as a soldier. However, his theory is not restricted to his historical period. Therefore, it constitutes the base for many academic's reflections in different generations. One of his mains thoughts concerns elaboration of concepts such as real war and absolute war. The first one, according to the author, is present in historical and actual realm, concrete in terms of high complexity, probabilities, luck, chance, and unpredictable, while the second one is an abstract definition. There is only one practical example available as a nearer approach to reality and example of absolute war: a historical innovation about its intensity of mobilization and resources for decisive battles under Napoleon Bonaparte's leadership. Thus, the victories of Napoleonic France created a historical novelty, an approach to absolute war not only for the reasons already mentioned, but also because war approached the extreme intensity of violence manifested at once. These are points that characterize its absolute feature. Absolute war took real form with the innovations of the nuclear age with the explosion of atomic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This project proposes to observe the literature that addresses this perspective on contemporary application of Clausewitz regarding the concept of absolute war.