Napoleon, Frederick, and the mass army

Freedman's discussion of Napoleon shows that successful strategy does not require original theory. Napoleon portrayed war as simple and practical, yet the tools he used can be traced through Frederick the Great, Guibert, and Lazare Carnot. Frederick supplied a model of discipline, maneuver, and local superiority, while Carnot created a revolutionary mass army organized for rapid offensive movement. Napoleon interpreted those inherited ideas in context and executed them with unusual speed and boldness. The example treats strategy as a system in which ideas, institutions, force generation, and battlefield execution must work together before they can alter the balance of power.