Author Description

""Cracking the Code: War's Hidden Methodology" seeks to fill what the author sees as a vacuum in the military-theoretical literature. While there have been many admirable surveys of the evolution of military thought through the ages, and some attempts to derive a theory for contemporary warfare, Yacov Bengo argues that they do not offer a "general theory of war." His manuscript, he argues, seeks "to extract the hidden methodology underlying the description of the phenomenon of war, alongside a survey of the development of military history in the modern era in general and in the twentieth century in particular." To accomplish this, he introduces four axes of analysis: the four "industrial revolutions" spanning the late 18th century through today; the five domains in which military operations are conducted (land, sea, air, space, cyberspace); a consideration of the most significant wars during the various historical eras; and the most important works of the most significant theorists of each age. He selects the theorists through an analysis of "revealed preference." Theorists make the cut if they are consistently included in the most reputable academic surveys of military theory, and/or are frequently studied in professional military education courses. Using this four-axis approach, the author outlines the "scaffolding" for a general theory of war"--