All-out war

The all-out war is that which does not concern solely any more of the military objectives (Ziel) but which subordinated to the policy seeks to achieve goals of war (Zweck).

It is implemented thanks to a total Strategy charged to conceive its control by defining “ the mission and the combination of the various strategies general, political, economic, diplomatic and military ” (Gall André Beaufre, Introduction to the strategy , coll Pluriel, Hachette, Paris, 1998).

This type of war which can mobilize all the available resources of a State knew various interpretations denaturing the original conceptual thought of its author Clausewitz.

In the facts, this mistake gave place to the research of the pure and simple destruction by the decisive battle (Verdun for example) without taking into account the dimension of the other factors and strategic levers available.

Thus Erich Ludendorff calls into question the primacy of the policy on the soldier in the all-out war (1935), perennializing the experiment of 1914 and thus anticipating the wars of the Third Reich.

See too

the interior Front () is a term appeared in a logic of all-out war.

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