Forty years of confrontation in Europe produced a complex set of conditioned reflexes in western military thinking. With the end of the Warsaw pact, planning and analysis specialists have been compelled to look again at basic principles. The analysis of threat and response has been transformed, and patterns of likely action such as the Gulf intervention have been accommodated. In practical terms, these developments affect what is taught to both new officers and senior officers about to assume command responsibilities.
The essays in "The "Science of War will foster a better understanding of the factors that operate at the higher levels of war. The contributors provide a penetrating study of the operational level of war from a general and speculative vantage point which integrates military theory and historical experience. As a whole, the book provides a theoretical basis for the principles of the planning and conduct of war at the operational level, without linking it to a specific formation or scenario.
The Staff College at Camberley has become an international focus for thinking in the development of military operations, and this book is the response of serving officers to this pattern of change. Their authoritative review of topics central to the study of war in the modern world provides an assessment of the possible shape and location of future wars.

List of illustrations, Notes on contributors, Preface, Introduction, 1 THE LESSONS OF THE 1920s AND MODERN EXPERIENCE, 2 THE CONTRIBUTION OF ORIGINALITY TO MILITARY SUCCESS, 3 ECONOMY OF EFFORT: A PASSIVE PRINCIPLE, 4 LIDDELL HART AND THE INDIRECT APPROACH TO STRATEGY, 5 BURMA, 1943-5: WHAT LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE?, 6 INCREASING TEMPO ON THE MODERN BATTLEFIELD, 7 DEPTH FIREPOWER: THE VIOLENT, ENABLING ELEMENT, 8 THE FUTURE OF SURPRISE ON THE TRANSPARENT BATTLEFIELD, 9 THE IMPACT OF THE MEDIA ON THE PROSECUTION OF CONTEMPORARY WARFARE, 10 A STUDY OF EUROPEAN DEFENCE NEEDS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, Index