Introduction

Abstract

There are at least two reasons, one immediate and practical and one deeper and more mediated, that lie upstream from the writing of this book and that motivate it. The first is that many years ago, when I began to study the military and its dynamics, I looked for a work like this one, a study that would give me an overall view, general but not superficial, of what had been thought, said, and written on the topic. I did not find it then, and I do not find it now, even as the growth of social studies of the military has attained the dimensions, depth, and horizontal development (according to geographic areas) that make it truly indispensable.