Thomas Ryan’s Reviews > A History of Warfare > Status Update

Keegan argues against the definition of war as the continuation of politics by other means:

“[Clauswitz’s view] implies the existence of states, of state interests and of rational calculation about how they may be achieved. Yet war antedates the state, diplomacy and strategy by many millennia.”

This argument is betrayed in his next sentences by Aristotle’s “man is a political animal” quote.