Het praktische nut van een militaire theorie bij Clausewitz

This thesis shall answer the question: what is the practical use of a military theory according to Clausewitz? In the absence of practical experience, an officer must rely on theory to verse him in warfare. To learn from theory, one must first know what a good military theory is. Theory is distilled from historical examples, which are in turn extracted from actual events. A good theory can be used as practice; accurately judging the decisions that generals made while trying to understand the process of decision-making through reenactment. This is a form of re-experiencing the events using counterfactuals. Clausewitz calls this critical analysis, a tool that helps shape the skill and intuition of the learning officer. The educational value of Clausewitz’ theory can be applied to modern warfare and other practical subjects.