The Art of Losing War: Operational Control vs Strategic Drift

BIPSS Research Assistant Nazmul Islam Mahmud explores why weak armies cause the great powers to fall, even though the armies in these instances were, in most cases, excellent. He argues that the ultimate rule of war is not to destroy targets the fastest. It is the sober practice of limiting military capability to political ends and of making these ends and means change with time, sometimes in ways they could not have foreseen, while learning from models.