CHRISTOPHER PIKE’s first book in his trilogy Making Sense of War examined war as a social phenomenon. About War (2021) explained why war, organised violence, happens. Also available from the Brown Dog Bookshop.
War in Context shows – through examples from history – how the state legitimises war and how war legitimises the state, and how Britain has used military force in the past.
Pike asks: is war necessary? Can it be predicted? Is terrorism war? Is terrorism effective and how should it be countered? What were the implications of al Qaeda’s attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in September 2001?
What then might be the effect on world stability of America’s less assertive leadership?
War in Context looks at deterrence, the basis for nuclear strategy; and the strategic implications of such modern phenomena as cyborgs, Artificial Intelligence and Drones. But the human factor is emphasised – the moral and physical pressure on commanders of robots and hypersonic missiles.
Above all, it is humans who decide how and when death is delivered. Science increases the intensity of battle, but man, not the machine, controls the outcome.
The book ends with an assessment of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Makingsenseofwar.com
Christopher Pike is an expert on war and warfare, and has been studying military history for 50 years. He believes that victory in battle is not the key to a lasting peace. What matters is understanding war’s constraints, defining aims and knowing when goals have been achieved. Organised violence, so often futile, is a last resort. Napoleon and Hitler are two examples of men failing to grasp war’s risks, war’s fallibilities, and their own limitations.
Pike’s sceptical and analytical philosophy shines through the pages of his three volume Making Sense of War. He is an alumnus of the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London, where his focus was on war and politics.
He also holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration. He was elected to the Council of the Society for Army Historical Research, where he organised and delivered lectures, including a major seminar at Apsley House, London, on Waterloo and the Iron Duke.
He lives in London and Norfolk and is a frequent visitor to the battlefields of Europe, seeing the lie of the land and the ‘Other Side of the Hill’ for himself. He has written many penetrating strategic backgrounds for battlefield tour guides.
One reader wrote: ‘Pike’s notes on why the Bulge was fought, why Arnhem failed, why the Somme was such slaughter was more penetrating (and digestible) than a hundred books.’