School of War or School of Battle? Educating for an Uncertain Future

AI Summary

The essay examines how military education should prepare officers for an uncertain future, using Jan Bloch’s arguments about changing warfare and the enduring value of studying history. It contrasts predictions about technology and future conflict with lessons drawn from past wars.

In 1901, military analyst Jan Bloch declared that new military technologies had changed war so radically that the study of history had become useless. He castigated military officers who prepared for future war based on “musty precedents” and who failed to recognize that the past was as irrelevant to the future as the experiences of caterpillars were to butterflies. Some of his tactical predictions did prove prescient: He anticipated that modern firepower and entrenchments would make decisive battle impossible. But he was very wrong about the continued value of history. After all, it was his study of past wars — The post School of War or School of Battle? Educating for an Uncertain Future appeared first on War on the Rocks.