The structure of military revolutions

Military revolutions are periods of discontinuous change in warfare. Revolutions in war have had profound consequences for the international system, ranging from the spread of Indo-European languages to the rise of the West. There is a large historical literature on the causes and consequences of military revolutions, but a persuasive general explanation of how revolutionary change occurs, and what distinguishes revolutionary from evolutionary change, has remained elusive.;Drawing inspiration from the writings of Carl von Clausewitz and Joseph Schumpeter, this dissertation seeks to fill that void. The dissertation argues that the potential for revolutionary change is inherent in war's non-linear structure, and that revolutionary change in aggregate military capabilities occurs through change in five core capability areas: firepower; mobility; protection; sustainment; and command, control, communications and intelligence. Change in the core capability areas is realized through new technology, operational concepts, organization, and resources, though the relative importance of these elements has varied substantially across military revolutions. Change reaches a revolutionary threshold when it increases offensive capabilities at the strategic/operational levels of war sufficiently to overthrow (render obsolete or subordinate) a military regime. This change is manifested through increases in the range and/or lethality of a force's ability to project power.;There are three strategies of "overthrow" that are central to revolutionary change in war: the quest for reach; the quest for rapid, decisive victory; and the quest to reorder. Military revolutions are most frequently realized by a "defining battle" in which the revolutionary force or forces waging it demonstrate the dominance of the new way of war. Occasionally, military revolutions are realized "existentially," or without a defining battle.;Strategic/operational offense theory has wide explanatory range across all historical periods and dimensions of warfare. It also provides a useful policy framework during periods of revolutionary change. There have been at most eighteen cases that warrant the description revolution in war, beginning with the advent of chariot warfare in the seventeenth century B.C. The modern period has witnessed the greatest frequency of revolutionary change in war, with as many as eleven distinct military revolutions.