The Scientific Way Of Warfare Order And Chaos On The Battlefields Of Modernity 1st Edition Antoine J Bousquet by Antoine J. Bousquet 9780197649671, 019764967X instant download after payment.

This book argues that the basic problem of successful war-making is the maintenance of order, or at least a greater degree of order, than one's opponent amidst the chaos of battle. In order to address this problem, military establishments since the seventeenth century have relied on the concepts of contemporary science. This book identifies four technoscientific regimes, each with its own metaphoric technology: mechanistic (clockwork), thermodynamic (engine), cybernetic (computer), and chaoplexic (network), merging chaos and complexity. Each of these metaphors owes its particularly widespread cultural influence to its embodiment in the dominant technology of the era and its pivotal position within a broad web of scientific theories and practices. With respect to the organization and exercise of armed force, these metaphors provide conceptual lenses and models for thinking about war.