The Bazaar of War

The Bazaar of War

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Venice and the Problem of Grand Strategy
The last two decades of the 15th century saw the Venetian empire at its peak.
2
Red Commissars of the Serene Republic: The Venetian Way of War
The gap between operations and strategy is the hardest to span. This problem is all the more acute when generals are mercenaries. Yet the Republic of…
The Northern Front: Trench Warfare in the 18th Century
Artillery flies over the heads of soldiers huddling in the trenches as they steel themselves for what is to come.
The Fighting March: Operational Mobility During the Crusades
Operational mobility is a universal challenge in war.
Why Study the Wars of Louis XIV?
With each passing year, the practical lessons of World War II become less relevant. The great war that defined our understanding of mechanized warfare…
11
Sea Power in Continental Wars: Naval Strategy Under Louis XIV & XV
The Anglo-French naval rivalry played out over 75 years of intense competition, against a backdrop of four titanic wars on the continent. Taken as a…
Successors to the Western Front, Pt. 1: Operational Maneuver in the Greco-Turkish War
The 1918 armistices were just as much the beginning of a new round of conflict as the end of the last: over the following decade, several wars erupted…
A War on Many Stages: Theater Strategies and the War of the Spanish Succession
On 1 November 1700, Charles II of Spain died without issue. This set in motion a series of events that led to the longest and most destructive war in…
Grand Strategy on the Political Stage: America in the War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought under the banner of “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights”—a reference to British trade restrictions and the impressment of…
5
The Future of Armor: Going to Ground
A recent piece from RUSI has provoked debate over the future of armored vehicles, examining how tanks can be adapted to the modern battlefield.
31
The Rappahannock Line: Mobile Warfare Along a Frozen Front
For the first three years of the American Civil War, the Rappahannock River was the effective boundary between North and South.
Successors to the Western Front, Pt. 2: The Second Zhili-Fengtian War
The period from 1920 to 1928 was the height of the Warlord Era, in which China was wracked by civil conflicts between rival military factions.
© 2025 Ben Duval
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