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History of Warfare
Cloth Hall; Battle of Ypres
British troops passing through the ruins of Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium, September 29, 1918.
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World War I, which was “total” in character because it resulted in the mobilization of
entire populations and economies for a prolonged period of time, did not fit into the
Clausewitzian pattern of limited conflict, and it led to a renewal of other theories. These
no longer regarded war as a rational instrument of state policy. The theorists held that
war, in its modern, total form, if still conceived as a national state instrument, should be
undertaken only if the most vital interests of the state, touching upon its very survival,
are concerned. Otherwise, warfare serves broad ideologies and not the more narrowly
defined interests of a sovereign or a nation. Like the religious wars of the 17th century,
war becomes part of “grand designs,” such as the rising of the proletariat in communist
eschatology or the Nazi doctrine of a master race.