Foundations of Conventional War

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Foundations of Conventional War introduces students to the underlying mechanisms and gradual evolution of combat from The First World War to today. The course will frame these mechanisms and evolutions around theoretical bedrock concepts, such as Steven Biddle's "Modern System" and Clausewitz's concept of Friction. Students will learn how these foundational concepts have varied over time due to technological, tactical, and social change. The course will then shift to contemporary conflicts to illustrate how foundational concepts might change due to emergent conditions on modern battlefields such as the current Russian invasion of Ukraine or hypothetical Taiwanese invasion scenarios. Students will produce simple models of combat to demonstrate foundational concepts as a final project.