Christopher Bassford (born 1953) is an American

military historian Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians ...

, best known for his works on the Prussian military philosopher

Carl von Clausewitz Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz ( , ; born Carl Philipp Gottlieb Clauswitz; 1 July 1780 – 16 November 1831) was a Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian general and Military theory, military theorist who stressed the "moral" (in modern terms meani ...

Life

He was Professor of Strategy at the

National War College In the United States, the National War College (NWC) is a school within the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active. History The National ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, from 1999 until 2012, when he joined the faculty of the College of International Security Affairs as part of the JSOMA program] supporting U.S. Army Special Operations Command. He is the web editor of The Clausewitz Homepage, a large educational website that has been on-line since 1995.

Works

Bassford has written scholarly studies, military doctrine, and articles for the popular press. He is the author of several books, including
Clausewitz in English: The Reception of Clausewitz in Britain and America, 1815-1945
' an

He is one of the editors of the

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the "Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three" (or MBB, the world's three large ...

's business-oriented
Clausewitz On Strategy: Inspiration and Insight from a Master Strategist
' and Carl von Clausewitz and Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

ed./trans. Christopher Bassford, Daniel Moran, and Gregory W. Pedlow (Clausewitz.com, 2010). From 1995 to 1999 he was involved in the writing of USMC doctrine, authoring ''MCDP 1-1, Strategy''; ''MCDP 1-2, Campaigning''; "MCWP 5-1, Marine Corps Planning" (Draft); ''MCWP 2-15.3, Ground Reconnaissance Operations''; and ''MCWP 3-2, Aviation Operations'', as well as participating in the writing of several other USMC and Joint concepts and doctrinal publications. His academic articles include:
Clausewitz’s Categories of War and the Supersession of ‘Absolute War’
" (working paper) ''ClausewitzStudies.org'', v.5 FEB 2022.

" ''War in History'', November 1994.
Reclaiming the Clausewitzian Trinity
" ''Parameters'', Autumn 1995 (with Edward Villacres).

in F.G. Hoffman and Gary Horne, eds., ''Maneuver Warfare Science,'' United States Marine Corps Combat Development Command, 1998.
Bringing Real Life to American Strategy in Afghanistan
" ''Small Wars Journal'', 3 March 2012.

" working paper, 2005–2015. His on-line books include: *

' (New York & London: Oxford University Press, 1994), . © C. Bassford. Full text on-line in HTML.

" working text, 1997–2015. This is derived from Bassford's original Draft of
MCDP 1-1: Strategy
' (1997), the US Marine Corps' Strategy manual. Full text on-line in HTML. *Carl von Clausewitz and Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington,

'' ed./trans. Christopher Bassford, Daniel Moran, and Gregory W. Pedlow (Clausewitz.com, 2010/2015). . Full text on-line in HTML.

The Clausewitz Homepage

Bassford is the editor o

an educational

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

that focuses on the German military philosopher

, and also o
ClausewitzStudies.org
which supports the scholarly study of Clausewitz's life and work. Bassford's own work on Clausewitz concentrates on the evolution of Clausewitz's reception, reputation, and impact in the English-speaking world. He is interested in the relationship between Clausewitzian theory, concepts from the field of nonlinear science, and modern evolutionary theory.

Notes

External links

Biography
at Clausewitz.com.
Video (13 mins), conclusion to a presentation at the Pentagon
30 October 2015, on how the notions of "limited war" and "total war" actually relate to Clausewitz's own strategic-analytical scheme. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bassford, Christopher Living people 1953 births United States Army officers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers