This book studies force, the coercive application of power against resistance, building from Thomas Hobbes’ observation that all self-contained political orders have some ultimate authority that uses force to both dispense justice and to defend the polity against its enemies.

1. Introduction: Tools for Sovereignty—Power and Force.- 2. Divide and Conquer: The Progress of Force to 1800.- 3. "The Civilizing Mission": European Dominance to 1914.- 4. The World Crisis: 1914–1953.- 5. A Frozen World, 1953–1990.- 6. A Liberal Order?.- 7. Information Wars.- 8. Conclusion: Force and Trust in the Future. 

This book studies force, the coercive application of power against resistance, building from Thomas Hobbes’ observation that all self-contained political orders have some ultimate authority that uses force to both dispense justice and to defend the polity against its enemies. This cross-disciplinary analysis finds that rulers concentrate force through cooperation, conveyance, and comprehension, applying common principles across history. Those ways aim to keep foes from concerting their actions, or by eliminating the trust that should bind them. In short, they make enemies afraid to cooperate, and now they are doing so in cyberspace as well. Michael Warner serves as an Historian in the U.S. Department of Defense and has written and lectured on intelligence and cyberspace history. John Childress is a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who has served as a ground commander in Iraq and Afghanistan and as an Assistant Professor at theUnited States Military Academy at West Point.

Provides a multi-disciplinary look at force and its implications for rule Develops a conceptual framework of force for sovereign powers based on theory from Aristotle, Sun Tzu, and Thomas Hobbes Analyzes the past, present, and future of force and security with a focus on technology as a catalyst for power shifts