Fighting Talk

This book is designed to explain the core, the essential nature of war, peace, and strategy. It could even be described as a user's guide. The popular and the scholarly literature on these three closely related topics is vast, a fact that reflects both the enduring grim reality of the human condition and an insatiable public appetite for the vicarious thrill of military dangers faced by others. Fighting Talk (FT) provides a unique window upon the most important of subjects. In addition to explaining the nature of war, peace, and strategy, and the relations among them, FT takes the logical next step and proceeds from understanding to advice. Stated bluntly, this book tells its readers (a) what war, peace, and strategy are, and (b) how to conduct them successfully, or, at least, how to increase prospects for success. The highly unusual organization of FT is vital for its mission and its appeal to readers. Because it consists of forty mini-essays, albeit grouped broadly by theme and ordered so as to present some approximation to a story arc, FT can focus exactly on its message. This book comprises a strategist's working assumptions about strategic history and how it operates. It is rare for authors to expose their assumptions at all explicitly, let alone in this fashion where they are highlighted and serve as the guide to the story, analysis, and policy prescriptions.

Colin S. Gray is Professor of International Politics and Strategic Studies, and Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies, University of Reading, England.