CHRISTOPHER PIKE's first book in his trilogy Making Sense of War examined war as a social phenomenon. About War (2021) explained why war, organised violence, happens. War in Context shows - through examples from history - how the state legitimises war and how war legitimises the state, and how Britain has used military force in the past. Pike asks: is war necessary? Can it be predicted? Is terrorism war? Is terrorism effective and how should it be countered? What were the implications of al Qaeda's attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in September 2001? What then might be the effect on world stability of America's less assertive leadership? War in Context looks at deterrence, the basis for nuclear strategy; and the strategic implications of such modern phenomena as cyborgs, Artificial Intelligence and Drones. But the human factor is emphasised - the moral and physical pressure on commanders of robots and hypersonic missiles. Above all, it is humans who decide how and when death is delivered. Science increases the intensity of battle, but man, not the machine, controls the outcome. The book ends with an assessment of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

War, like death and taxes, seems eternal but is it inevitable? Do nations simply blunder into it? What is victory and how is it achieved? The author of this original and lively study answers these and other perennial questions about War and Warfare (not the same thing) that scholars often ignore. Pike explains how strategy fuses objectives and action, how war leaders invariably (and literally) lose the plot; how the relationship between generals and politicians is key. He looks at nuclear war and provides some provocative insights; he argues that Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) - while a hideous concept - provides strategic stability. He also highlights the absurdity and folly of past wars - football wars, wars about pigs or ears - but stresses that wars, a last resort once diplomacy has failed, are lost by those blinded by hubris, irresolution or simple strategic confusion. This is the first volume in a trilogy 'Making Sense of War'. 'War in Context' will be published in the spring/summer of 2022. 'Both learned and a joy to read, Pike synthesises 2,000 years of scholarship and cuts through the fog of war and history.' Antony Bird (writer and historian)