If we ask, first of all, for the object upon which the whole effort of
War is to be directed, in order that it may suffice for the attainment
of the political object, we shall find that it is just as variable as
are the political object and the particular circumstances of the War.

If, in the next place, we keep once more to the pure conception of War,
then we must say that the political object properly lies out of its
province, for if War is an act of violence to compel the enemy to fulfil
our will, then in every case all depends on our overthrowing the enemy,
that is, disarming him, and on that alone. This object, developed from
abstract conceptions, but which is also the one aimed at in a great many
cases in reality, we shall, in the first place, examine in this reality.

In connection with the plan of a campaign we shall hereafter examine
more closely into the meaning of disarming a nation, but here we must
at once draw a distinction between three things, which, as three general
objects, comprise everything else within them. They are the MILITARY
POWER, THE COUNTRY, and THE WILL OF THE ENEMY.

The military power must be destroyed, that is, reduced to such a state
as not to be able to prosecute the War. This is the sense in which
we wish to be understood hereafter, whenever we use the expression
"destruction of the enemy's military power."

The country must be conquered, for out of the country a new military
force may be formed.

But even when both these things are done, still the War, that is, the
hostile feeling and action of hostile agencies, cannot be considered as
at an end as long as the will of the enemy is not subdued also; that is,