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This book is a collection of eight essays on politics and defense written over the past quarter of a century. What particularly unifies them is the distinction between the military and police (or punitive) uses of force and implication of each for preservation of moderate political practices and skill in the use of armed force. The various essays illustrate these conceptual points by examination of the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, U.S. nuclear strategy and current 'RMA' and counter-insurgency doctrines, among others. The essays collectively advance the view that even in the age of nuclear weapons and 'war amongst the people,' the punitive threat and use of armed force is incapable of maintaining control over a relatively equal force. It can only be effective where there is massive superiority of the means of armed force concentrated in one political authority. Also included is an article on Clausewitz by a senior army officer (the author's father) that supports the conceptual and practical distinction between the military and police uses of armed force.