The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Ehsan Honary — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:33:00 GMT

William .L. Shirer, (1960) The rise and fall of the third Reich, Arrow Books

This is great history book on the events leading to World War II. What makes it different from other history books is that it attempts to capture the reasons behind the decision made by key players as opposed to just reporting history as it took place. They used it all; bluffing, deceit, back-stabbing, outright aggression, use of fear against anyone who is against you. Propaganda was practically invented by the Nazi and there is a lot to learn from history. If you see how easily people have been manipulated in the past, you may come to appreciate the dangers facing us today and how to avoid it.

You can easily relate many of the real-world events in this book to Risk situations and get to learn more in the process. This is, after all, a book about diplomacy. See how the world leader did it themselves and learn from them.

On War

Ehsan Honary — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:13:00 GMT

Carl von Clausewitz (2007) On War, Oxford University Press.

Clausewitz was a Prussian General who was interested to analyse military campaigns and attempt to answer difficult questions. On War is one of the most important works written on strategy. The most important concepts discussed in this book are perhaps the following:

War must never be seen as a purpose to itself, but as a means of physically forcing one's will on an opponent. War is the continuation of politics through other means.

The military objectives in war that support one's political objectives fall into two broad types:
- War to achieve limited aims
- War to disarm the enemy and to render him politically helpless or militarily impotent

The course of war will tend to favour the party devoting more resolve and resources. He then goes on to introduce the concept of Total War: the pursuit of complete military victory regardless of the political consequences.

Some also criticize his work and suggest that his concept of Total War was behind the huge devastation caused as a result of the two World Wars in the twentieth century. Either way, the work attempts to show why war takes place and how it is used as a tool to accommodate the needs of politicians and leaders.

The concepts are directly applicable to playing Risk.

Total Diplomacy

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

On War