The Art Of War: AthenianArts.Com By Baron De Jomini

Antoine-Henri, baron Jomini (March 6, 1779–March 24, 1869) was a general in the French and later in the Russian service, and one of the most celebrated writers on the Napoleonic art of war. According to the historian John Shy, Jomini “deserves the dubious title of founder of modern strategy.”

Jomini’s military writings are frequently caricatured: he took a didactic, prescriptive approach, reflected in a detailed vocabulary of geometric terms such as bases, strategic lines, and key points. His operational prescription was fundamentally simple: put superior combat power at the decisive point. In the famous theoretical Chapter 25 of the Traité de grande tactique, he stressed the exclusive superiority of interior lines.

As one writer rather partial to Carl von Clausewitz–Jomini’s great competitor in the field of military theory—put it:

Jomini was no fool, however. His intelligence, facile pen, and actual experience of war made his writings a great deal more credible and useful than so brief a description can imply. Once he left Napoleon’s service, he maintained himself and his reputation primarily through prose. His writing style–unlike Clausewitz’s–reflected his constant search for an audience. He dealt at length with a number of practical subjects (logistics, seapower) that Clausewitz had largely ignored. Elements of his discussion (his remarks on Great Britain and seapower, for instance, and his sycophantic treatment of Austria’s Archduke Charles) are clearly aimed at protecting his political position or expanding his readership. And, one might add, at minimizing Clausewitz’s, for he clearly perceived the Prussian writer as his chief competitor. For Jomini, Clausewitz’s death thirty-eight years prior to his own came as a piece of rare good fortune.