Art Of War Research Articles

Adaptation of Post-fortress Buildings as an Enrichment of the Functional Programme of a Housing Estate on the Example of Fort VIII Służew in Warsaw

The article refers to the problem of adaptation of post-fortress objects from the 19th century located in the strict urban tissue in Poland. The authors of the text analyse the example of adaptation of Fort VIII Służew in Warsaw as a way of making common spaces in housing estates more attractive. The rapid demilitarisation of fortresses from this period caused by the development of the art of war and the subsequent dynamic development of urban planning after the Second World War resulted in the degradation and disappearance of these valuable monuments. The Russian ring fortress of Warsaw is now entirely within the urban fabric. Introducing additions and new utility functions is becoming a way of protecting the existing stock of often degraded spaces left behind by former forts. On the example of Fort VIII Służew, a number of activities related to adaptation, revitalisation and revalorisation of the existing urbanised residential space in Ursynów district are presented. The analysed object together with its surroundings is an example of a way to use post-fortress spaces for both utilitarian and cognitive purposes while respecting historic values. Age-old fortifications, so well preserved in Poland, significantly define and shape urban layouts. The research carried out by the authors of this text shows that appropriate use of the potential of post-fortress buildings from the 19th century can significantly improve the quality and character of colonial buildings and highlight the values associated with this type of specific monument.

Wound: creativity, the military and a sculpture inspired by faces, minds, and landscapes scarred by the weapons of war

ABSTRACT In reference to Alice Cree’s observation that the words ‘creativity’ and ‘military’ do not seem to ‘fit together comfortably’, the first section of this autoethnographic article critically explores my personal experiences and motivations as an artist working in close proximity to military culture. This creative practice-military relationship is examined in a variety of contexts, including designing war memorials, exhibiting in military museums, and actively participating in military, commemorative rituals. The potential risks – being co-opted by military agendas – and benefits – having a platform to use my creative voice to express the consequences of martial violence – are discussed. Focusing on one of my artworks, Wound (2022), the second section demonstrates the capability of creative practice to interrogate consequences of military (and by implication, state) violence. Wound is a bronze sculpture cast from an original First World War British Brodie helmet and a German Mauser rifle cartridge. By means of moulding, casting, and modelling processes, I reconfigured the original sources of armour and ammunition as a narrative site to metaphorically explore the ‘wounding’ and ‘healing’ of landscapes and human faces and minds. Through the allegorical interpretation of this artwork and by recounting personal experiences related to its research and creation, I discuss my creative practice as a memory artist and explain my motivations for making artworks that explore human violence and warfare. The article surveys other examples of visual art and human violence in war from classical antiquity to the present, with particular emphasis on the First World War.

Sir Walter Ralegh and the Art of War by Sea: Military Humanism and the Uses of the Early Modern Soldier‐Scholar

Sir Walter Ralegh and the Art of War by Sea: Military Humanism and the Uses of the Early Modern Soldier‐Scholar

PUTIN AND BIDEN’S SPEECHES ON THE RUSSIAN INVOLVEMENT IN UKRAINE: DIALOGUE AND POLEMICS

Throughout the world’s long tradition with war, it has often been raised as a question whether any war was worth waging, and if so, when and how? The reply to this philosophical maze of extreme convictions differs depending on whom you ask. In this present article, we tackled the ideological differences that lead to the discrepancies between answers given by Russia and the United States of America. For this, we took as primary sources the speeches of 24 February 2022 that Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden made on Russia’s immediate involvement in Ukraine. We tried to look for dialogic clash over the choice of diction as a major ideological stance, relying on Michael Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism and his notions of hidden polemics and parody to illustrate the condemnation of the war on one end and its justification on the other. The aim was to extrapolate the themes tackled and their sequence by referring to the just war theory in its three divisions jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and jus post bellum which together structure the ancient practice of the art of war in its distinct phases. Biden and Putin heavily bid on these notions to give their viewpoints legal and ethical legitimacy and convince the international community of their just causes. Through this study, we found that the presidents stylized their speeches to follow each other’s, giving responses in an implicit and tacit manner, which we uncovered as hidden polemics in their styles of diction. We have also discovered that both presidents evoked their nemesis’ violation of the just war theory and defended their own just cause and respect for international regulation. This study falls within the field of discourse analysis that is a key element in understanding politics on the levels of presidential speeches.

Melton Prior: War artist in Southern Africa, 1895-1900

Melton Prior: War artist in Southern Africa, 1895-1900

The special correspondents’ monuments: Melton Prior, imperial memory and the Victorian press in the shadow of the South African War, 1899–1901

This article examines Bertha Burleigh’s 1912 marble and onyx monument to the war artist Melton Prior (1845–1910) alongside a range of earlier memorials to ‘special correspondents’ in the crypt in St Paul’s Cathedral. It considers the monument in the context of significant shifts in the nature of war reportage in the early twentieth century, as new and increasingly brutal technologies and methods of war placed significant strain on romantic Victorian conceptions of conflict. Exploring the extent to which war artists such as Prior were implicated in the violence they were tasked with documenting, the article also asks how such visual reportage informed the racial politics of memory embodied in the crypt, anointing some men as imperial heroes worthy of sombre commemoration and others as ‘ungrieveable’.

Shrewdness and Coup d’œil: The Cognitive Attributes of the Consummate General (Greek Antiquity, Byzantine Era, Modern Times)

Abstract This article tests Everett Wheeler’s hypothesis that the Greek concept of ankhínoia finds its equivalent in the 18th-century military writers’ notion of the coup d’oeil by comparing treatises on the art of war written in the two periods. After highlighting the different meanings of the coup d’oeil in 18th -century military terminology, Carl von Clausewitz’s approach is examined in his new conceptual way.

Curating Community behind Barbed Wire: Canadian Prisoner of War Art from the Second World War

Though often under-represented in the official and national narratives and in Canadian military historiography more broadly, the intimate and personal lived experiences of Canadian prisoners of war (POW) during the Second World War can be found in archives, photography collections, and collections of war art. In an attempt to see past the mythologised versions of POWs that appear in Hollywood films, best-selling monographs, and other forms of popular culture, it is through bits of ephemera—including wartime log books and the drawings carefully kept and sent home to loved ones along with handwritten letters—that the stories of non-combatant men and women who spent their war as POWs, can be told. Together, Canadian POWs created and curated community and fostered unconventional family ties, sometimes called “emotional communities”, through the collection and accumulation of drawings, illustrations, paintings, and other examples of war art on the pages of their wartime log books while living behind barbed wire. This article uncovers some of these stories, buried in the thousands of boxes in the George Metcalf Archival Collection—the textual archives—at the Canadian War Museum (CWM) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Topography of a Painting: Carel Weight’s Holborn Circus, 1947

In the modern era, London’s streetscape changes with great rapidity as buildings are demolished and replaced. Carel Weight’s painting, Holborn Circus, 1947, records that fallow period between bombsite and rebuilding that often lasted for years after the war, but now is often only a matter of weeks. Weight had not long returned from ten months in Europe as an official war artist when he painted the scene around Holborn Circus from a friend’s studio flat. It is an image of a London past: almost nothing in this painting still exists, and the streetscape has changed more than once since the 1940s. While there is nothing especially innovative about the painting, it addresses our nostalgia for what was and is no more through the vision of an artist tempered by experience of war-ravaged Italian cities. This article situates Weight’s painting in the context of other depictions of London after the war and describes the fundamental changes to the area wrought by widespread demolition and reconstruction in the post-war era.

Generalities concerning the Capitalization on some Elements of Military Art in the Russian-Ukrainian War

The article addresses some points of view regarding the particularities of military art, as a result of studying the military actions carried out in the Russian-Ukrainian war, expressing a general character and serving to achieve the proposed objectives. The author focused his attention on the examination of the sources, the elucidation of various phenomena and significant moments about military art, in correlation with the mutations of the battlefield. The mentioned results were obtained following the study of the factual material and the formulation of some ideas from the learned lessons, which will later be useful in the national military art. The author approaches the visions of the operations based on the analysis of the phenomena, laws and established principles regarding the conduct of the armed struggle, the existing conceptions of the universal military thought. In conclusion, choosing of the correct course of action will depend on the ratio of forces and means of the conflicting parties, the action plans of one’s own forces and of the adversary, as well as the visionary capabilities of the commanders.

Military affairs in the Golden Horde and Turan: a comparative analysis

The purpose of the article is a historical reconstruction of the most important components of the military affairs of the Golden Horde and Turan, their comparative analysis, establishment of common features and differences, as well as clarification of the social and military-technical reasons that led to the military defeat and subsequent decline of Ulus Juchi. The research methodology, in addition to observing the principles of objectivity and historicism, consisted in the consistent application of the historical comparative method, its heuristic, analytical, descriptive functions and the function of identifying borrowings and influences. The scientific novelty is contained in the systematic application of a comparative analysis of the military affairs in Ulus Juchi and in the state of Timur, revealing the effectiveness of transfers and durability of elements of the military art of the Mongolian and Turkic ethnic communities. Conclusions. The author has found the military affairs of the Genghisids to be based on Mongolian military traditions and experience. Decimal system and the left-right arms and the center structuring underlay the military organization of the countries. Golden Horde and Ulus Chagatai preserved general military duty. Mobilization resource comprised hundreds of thousands of prepared warriors called horse-soldiers. The paper has identified that the would-be reinforcement training was naturally held in professional and living environments of the Nomads. It was battue hunting that played a significant role in military organization and tactics. The armies of Golden Horde and Turan consisted of light and heavily armed cavalry. The article has demonstrated that the Tymur’s infantry was of great importance and performed special vital urgent tasks but supporting role. Being a general, Tymur among the followers of Mongolian war principal was the first to take notice of the new tendency in military affairs. The army of Golden Horden was proved to successfully know the Nomads’ basic tactical techniques – “round dance”, “crow’s flock”, “shiuchi” and “tulgam”. “Tulgama” known as bypassing the enemy from one or two flanks and getting behind his lines when battling, was the most effective tactical military instrument of the Genghisids states. The Turan army lead by Tymur, was able to contrast “tulgama” with their own organizational and tactical innovations. Tymur covered cavalry corps of the left and right arms were by “canbulas” – protective corps with the number no less than the main divisions. Their clear task included to prevent the enemy’s cavalry from going around from the flanks. They fought together with the vanguard corps. The most important Tymur’s innovation was introducing a powerful rearguard – a corps of patches of twenty koshuns. Unlike the Golden Horde warriors, Tymur enriched the Mongolian art of war with systemic use of reserves. The paper has found that military organization of Golden Horde and Turan was tightly connected with the social structure. In the middle of the 14th century Ulus Dzhuchi survived the political crises “Great Confusion” that provoked increasing of centrifugal motion. After political anarchy, uluses were assigned to the Juchid clans. Bekliarbek (a stoker) position creation was a sign of feudalization and central power weakening in Golden Horde. The way Khan Tokhtamysh had distributed suurgals (patches) in order to increase the number of his adherents, didn’t bring power consolidation, but loose it contrariwise. In the Tokhtamysh army it was revealed with commanders (oglans and beks) betrayal. The Tymur’s state was in the ascendancy; allowance of uluses and suurgals was developed with establishing clear and definite military duties. Feudalization tendency hadn’t appeared clearly in Turan yet. That lead to more solidarity and motivation of the Tymur’s army in his resistance with Tokhtamysh.

The Science of Heresthetic and The Theoretical Structure of Herestethetics

Heresthetic as an science is a strategic thinking method that people use in their struggle in life today, which is yet in its infancy in the literature. The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Tzu, 2008). Heresthetic started in the 3500s BC, when the hot war was valid, and was used in the struggle of today’s civilized and democratic people, heresy, only rhetoric and manipulation criteria, and in 1986 it was introduced as an art (as not science) by W.H. Riker. W.H. Riker explained herestetic that fort he first time in political science about trying to get vote of the people by manipulation in the general elections of the parliament. He also drew attention to the use the art of manipulation in coalitions. W.H. Riker regarded herestetic as an art rather than a science and declared that everyone wouldn’ t practice it. The study aims to examine the historical development, basic concepts and especially the application criteria of heresthetics from ancient times to the present.

"The Idea of Yin and Yang and Five Elements Inherent in the Strategy of the Art of War"

"The Idea of Yin and Yang and Five Elements Inherent in the Strategy of the Art of War"

تطور الحياة السياسية فــي بلاد الرافدين من عصر فجر السلالات حتى نهاية دولة أور الثالثة (2900-2006ق.م)

كتبت في هذا البحث نبذة مختصرة عن نظام الحكم كيف نشأ وتطور لكن لا يمكن اعطاء تحديد دقيق للمدة الزمنية التي نشأت فيها الأصول الأولى لأنظمة الحكم وأشكاله لانعدام المصادر الأثرية, ثم نبذة عن عصر فجر السلالات وكيف نشأت السلالات الحاكمة في كل دويلة مدينة وانفصال السلطة الدينية عن السلطة الدنيوية, وتمكن الكوتيون من احتلال البلاد في العصر الأكدى بعد اقتباسهم فنون الحرب والسلاح من الأكديين, فضلا عن حالة الركود الحضاري في اثناء مدة حكم الكوتيين في عصر سلالة اور الثالثة

The Sublime Art of War

The Sublime Art of War

Xenophon’s Cyrus in Paradise: Hunting and the Art of War in Antiquity

ABSTRACT: Xenophon’s portrait of the education of Cyrus the Great in his Cyropaedia depicts a youth with an erotic desire for hunting, which in the ancient world trained men in the art of war. But Cyrus learned quickly from going on hunts in the royal parks or “paradises” of his grandfather, the King of Media, that the luxurious mode of hunting game in parks could not match the thrill of hunting animals in the wild. Moreover, hunting in paradise was a temptation to be avoided, because it failed to educate one in that kind of virtue which (as Machiavelli later argued) alone prepares a prince to conquer and, as in the case of Cyrus, become the founder of an empire.

The art of war: examining the visual narratives of Ukrainian video games

This article focuses on the visual narratives of Ukrainian war-themed video games, analysing how they depict the Russia-Ukraine war and contribute to the national narrative of resistance and resilience. Using cultural, structuralist and critical approaches, the research examines the portrayal of cultural heroes, chronotypes, values, and carnival mechanisms in these visual narratives. This article analyses how visual elements in Ukrainian video games reflect and respond to contemporary socio-political realities and how Ukrainian game developers navigate the complexities of their nation's history, memory, and identity while contributing to ongoing discourses surrounding resistance and resilience. The study identifies key Ukrainian narratives: the sanctity of Ukraine's borders (map), new war topos, and the invasion-centred timeline; Ukraine's global mission against evil; individual contributions to national victory; and the carnivalesque nature of the Ukrainian culture. Computer game narratives deconstruct enemy propaganda, highlight Ukraine's resilience, and inform the global community about events in Ukraine.

Inventing the savage: the Sapara people of the Ecuadorian Amazon in 19th-century travel writing

In this article, we examine the discursive construction of the Sapara people of the Ecuadorian Amazon in the writings of travelers who explored the region in the second half of the 19th century. We focus mainly on the ways in which these writings reflect prevailing ideologies of the time, according to which “civilized” human societies could be distinguished from “savage” ones. In doing this, we analyze the representation of different aspects of the Sapara culture, such as agriculture and working habits, gender relations and sexual practices and the art of war and leisure. We frame our analysis in the theoretical proposal of Irvine and Gal for the ideological construction of cultural difference through the semiotic processes known as rhematization, fractal recursivity, and erasure.

Analogy between Modern Project Management Theory and Sunzi Art of War: Chapters 1 to 4

This article scrutinizes the analogy between modern project management theory and Sunzi Art of War (or “Sunzi” for short in this abstract) by comparing and contrasting them and identifying the similarities and dissimilarities between them. It is revealed that similarities overwhelmingly exceed dissimilarities at least by the numbers of ideas in the two philosophies. To be specific, Sunzi’s decision on war versus no war is comparable to modern project selection, both being worth prior rigorous contemplation and thus analysis. Sunzi’s analysis is analogous to key success factor (KSF) analysis or strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis commonly adopted in modern project management. Sunzi reiterates the criticality of performing analysis prior to any warfare in the same way as modern project management accentuates analysis for the purpose of project selection. Sunzi analyzes war in a quantified manner somewhat akin to the cost-benefit analysis commonly employed in modern project selection. Sunzi assumes the increase of fixed costs with time just as modern project management does. Sunzi’s practice of “team building” resembles modern project management’s. Sunzi regards victory in war as the objective of top priority in a way similar to defining project objectives and establishing project priorities in modern project management. Sunzi pays heed to the satisfaction and other psychological statuses of the soldiers as much as modern project management does. Sunzi prefers to fight wars only after conducting thorough analysis to predict favorable outcomes of the wars, whereas modern project managers likewise would proceed with any projects only after performing systematic analysis for project selection to predict favorable outcomes. Sunzi believes in managing the military by means of the rule of law and discipline, which modern project management is premised on. Sunzi contends that everything in war has to be measured, estimated, calculated, and probability-based, which is exactly the kind of positivism and scientific approaches upheld by modern project management. Having said this, Sunzi’s insistence on “doing it right once” disagrees with a few modern project management methodologies. Also, the approaches to implement the ideas differ between the two philosophies.

«Мүнйетүл-гүзат» жазба ескерткішіндегі есім сөздердің лексикалық ерекшеліктері

The traditions of comparative study of Turkic languages, creation of dictionaries, and teaching the Kipchak language to representatives of other nationalities constitute one epoch in the land of the Mamluks. Monuments belonging to this era have different purposes and contents. The article analyzes the lexical specificity of the nominal words on the monument "Munyetul-Gyuzat", belonging to the period of the Mamluk Kipchaks. Somaticisms and names of species and colors in the text are compared with modern Kazakh and Turkic languages. Mamluk Kipchaks make up a significant part of the monuments of Kapshak writing in general. During the period of the Mamluk Kipchaks, dictionaries, works, and grammatical works were written to study the language. This heritage is directly related to the Kipchak language. It is important in studying the history of the formation of the Kazakh language, both the oral speech of the Kipchaks in the Middle Ages and literary variants of the language. "Munyetul-Guzat" is a work dedicated to the art of war. This monument has not yet been fully studied in linguistics. As for the history of the Kazakh language, the study of the vocabulary of this text is important for linguistics.