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Biographies of our main Military Thinkers-

Sun Tzu (c. 544-496 BCE) was a Chinese military general from the state of Wu during the Spring and Autumn period (722-481). Known for numerous military victories despite terrible odds, Sun Tzu’s actual campaigns are notoriously illusive to history. However, Sun Tzu’s written masterpiece The Art of War is the earliest and one of the most studied military treatises in the world.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was an Italian political philosopher and military strategist. In line with his continued interest in the arts, Machiavelli was a prolific writer. Among his prominent writings with military geography as a topic include his Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on Livy, 1512-1517) and Il Principe (The Prince, 1513).

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), like Machiavelli, is well known to history. A youthful commander in the French army, Napoleon rose in a coup d’etat in November 1799, and two years later, made himself emperor of France. By 1810, Napoleon controlled most of modern day Europe. His Maxims of War were published six years after his death.

Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) was a Prussian general who fought Napoleon in his advances into what would become modern-day Germany. Clausewitz is mainly known for his military tome, On War, which is, arguably, the most pondered treatise on the subject ever written.

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) was a Union naval officer during the Civil War and later a lecturer on maritime/naval strategy at the Naval War College where he was also president. His masterwork, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, defined the way the militaries of the world saw and used their navies to their full potential.

John M. Collins (1924- ) is a retired U.S. colonel and former Director of Military Strategy Studies at the National War College. Colonel Collins is one of the most distinguished authors on military strategy and geography in America; his work, Military Geography For Professionals and the Public, is one of the first comprehensive texts on military geography in the world.