Not Knowing
On Saturday I was not watching news feeds. I did not know that USA has started an attack on Iran. I found out just in the evening when my wife told me. If she did not tell me, I would… Read More »Not Knowing
War
The new world order, explained
It is not great powers competing, it is Game of Thrones.
Let’s save the human species!
World is changing rapidly and what is true today won’t be so in a few decades. “It’s difficult to state just how stark and catastrophic of a collapse this is. The number of births in China fell by 17% in… Read More »Let’s save the human species!
How Debt Bankrupted the British Empire — And Why America, the Second Rome, Is Walking the Same Path
New Rome is in trouble. “Empires do not end because they want to. They end because the numbers leave no alternative.” https://nitishastra.substack.com/p/how-debt-bankrupted-the-british-empire
Collections: How to Raise a Tribal Army in Pre-Roman Europe, Part I: Aristocrats, Retainers and Clients
How people get food dictates structure of a society in a major way. “one of the best ways to start thinking about any historical society is to begin with the subsistence foundation it is built on, because how people get… Read More »Collections: How to Raise a Tribal Army in Pre-Roman Europe, Part I: Aristocrats, Retainers and Clients
Riot Policing and Ancient War
This is the closest thing you can see in modern times to ancient battle formation and warfare. Also, who wins is not the one who kills the most but the one that breaks morale of the other side. That is… Read More »Riot Policing and Ancient War
Collections: Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part IIIc: Morale and Cohesion
Morale is not one number. “Morale is the commitment the combatants have to their leadership and their cause. To simplify a bit, we might say that soldiers with good morale believe three things: that their cause is a worthy one,… Read More »Collections: Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part IIIc: Morale and Cohesion
Collections: Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part IIIa: Discipline
Having an army is expensive. “expense of doing this would have been in most cases enormous and of course those are resources that could be deployed to any number of other uses, including simply raising a larger army of less… Read More »Collections: Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part IIIa: Discipline
Collections: Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part II: Commands
Leading in battle is sometimes more important than commanding. “We have to start not with tactics or the physics of shouting orders, but with cultural expectations. First, we need to establish some foundations here. First, in a pre-modern battle (arguably… Read More »Collections: Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part II: Commands
Collections: Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part I: Reports
“Rarely does one get a battle scene in which all of the decisions of import were made at a council of war in the early, pre-dawn hours with the battle then left to simply play out according to plan and… Read More »Collections: Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part I: Reports