Strategic Thought Questions and Answers

Q: Which of the following thinkers rejected the old condottieri system and favoured the idea of national troops ?

The answer is Niccolo Machiavelli.The condottieri were mercenary captains whom Italian states hired to fight their wars. In The Prince and The Art of War Machiavelli condemned mercenaries as disunited, ambitious and faithless, and argued that a state should rely on its own citizen soldiers. As secretary of the Florentine Republic he put this into practice by organising a Florentine militia in 1506.Giulio Douhet was the Italian theorist of air power in the 1920s, Liddell Hart (spelt 'Liddle' in the paper) the British writer of the indirect approach, and Clausewitz the Prussian theorist of war and politics. None of them was concerned with the condottieri system, which had long disappeared by their time.

Q: "Whoever controls the Indian Ocean will dominate Asia". These words were said by which person ?

The words are attributed to Admiral Mahan.Alfred Thayer Mahan, the American naval officer whose The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890) founded modern sea-power theory, is credited with saying that whoever controls the Indian Ocean will dominate Asia, and that the ocean is the key to the seven seas. The quotation is repeated in almost every Indian textbook on maritime security, though it has not been traced to a particular passage of his published work.Nehru wrote on the importance of the sea to India but is not the source of this line. Admiral Nelson was a British commander of the Napoleonic wars, and General MacArthur was associated with the Pacific war and Korea, not with this saying.

Q: Who among the following compared guerrillas to fish and support from people to water ?

The answer is Mao Tse Tung.In On Guerrilla Warfare (1937) Mao wrote that the people are like water and the army like fish living in it. The image sums up his doctrine that a guerrilla force survives only with the support, shelter and intelligence of the local population, which is why counter-insurgency later spoke of 'draining the sea'.Che Guevara wrote his own manual, Guerrilla Warfare (1960), built on the idea of a small armed nucleus (the foco), not on Mao's fish metaphor. Liddell Hart wrote on the indirect approach in conventional war, and David Rapoport is a scholar of terrorism known for his 'four waves' theory.

Q: Who propounded the 'Mandala Theory' of Interstate relations ?

The answer is Kautilya.In the Arthashastra Kautilya describes the Mandala (circle of states). The ruler who seeks conquest, the vijigishu, stands at the centre; the state next to him is his natural enemy (ari), the one beyond that is a natural friend (mitra), and so on outward, with middle and neutral kings completing a circle of twelve. The theory treats neighbours as rivals and the neighbour's neighbour as an ally.Valmiki composed the Ramayana, Manu is the lawgiver of the Manusmriti, and Shukra is credited with the Shukraniti, a later text on polity. None of them propounded the Mandala theory.

Q: Who among the following is the author of 'Armament and History' ?

The author is J.F.C. Fuller.Major-General J.F.C. Fuller, the British pioneer of armoured warfare, published Armament and History in 1945. It traces how changes in weapons, from the phalanx to the atomic bomb, have shaped the conduct of war and the course of civilisation.Jomini wrote The Art of War (1838) on Napoleonic strategy; Liddell Hart (spelt 'Liddle' in the paper) wrote Strategy: The Indirect Approach; and Hitler's book was Mein Kampf, a political tract rather than a military history.

Q: Which one of the following is not recognized as a Principle of War ?

The answer is Industrial Power.The principles of war followed by the Indian and British armies are: selection and maintenance of the aim, maintenance of morale, offensive action, surprise, concentration of force, economy of effort (economy of force), security, flexibility, cooperation and administration. The list goes back to J.F.C. Fuller's work after the First World War.Economy of force, surprise and selection and maintenance of the aim all appear on it. Industrial power is an element of national power and of a country's war potential, but it is not a principle for conducting war, so it is the odd one out.

Q: The book 'The Geography of the Peace' is authored by :

The Geography of the Peace was written by Nicholas John Spykman.The Yale geostrategist's book was published in 1944, shortly after his death. It set out the Rimland theory: whoever controls the Rimland, the coastal belt around Eurasia, rules Eurasia and controls the destinies of the world, a reply to Mackinder's Heartland theory.A.T. Mahan wrote The Influence of Sea Power upon History; Karl Haushofer was the German exponent of Geopolitik and Lebensraum; Friedrich Ratzel developed the organic theory of the state and the idea of living space.

Q: Native name of Military Thinker Sun Tsu was :

Sun Tzu's personal name was Sun Wu."Sun Tzu" (Sunzi) is an honorific meaning Master Sun. According to the historian Sima Qian, the author of The Art of War was Sun Wu, a general from the state of Qi who served King Helu of Wu in the late sixth century BCE.Sun-Zu is only another spelling of the honorific Sunzi, not a native personal name; Sun-Tao and Sun-Ma are not names attached to him in any source.

Q: Carl Von Clausewitz belongs to the country of .............

Carl von Clausewitz belonged to Prussia.Born in 1780 at Burg near Magdeburg, he served as a Prussian officer in the Napoleonic Wars (spending 1812-14 in Russian service when Prussia was allied to Napoleon) and later directed the Prussian war college in Berlin. His unfinished On War was published by his widow after his death in 1831.The unified German state did not exist until 1871, after his death, so "Germania" is not the answer; his Russian service was temporary; Macedonia has no connection with him.

Q: Find the correct ascending chronological sequence of the following thinkers :

The key gives A.T. Mahan, Mackinder, Haushofer, S.B. John.The three thinkers whose dates are well known settle the order. Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) published his sea-power thesis in 1890. Halford Mackinder (1861-1947) gave his Heartland paper, "The Geographical Pivot of History", in 1904. Karl Haushofer (1869-1946) built German Geopolitik in the 1920s and 1930s, after both.Only option C keeps Mahan first, Mackinder second and Haushofer third. Option A starts with Haushofer, the latest of the three, option B puts Mahan after Mackinder, and option D ends with Mahan, the earliest of them, so all three break the known order.

41.

Which of the following thinkers rejected the old condottieri system and favoured the idea of national troops ?

A.Giulio Douhet
B.Niccolo Machiavelli
C.Liddle Hart
D.Karl Von Clausewitz

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

The answer is Niccolo Machiavelli.

The condottieri were mercenary captains whom Italian states hired to fight their wars. In The Prince and The Art of War Machiavelli condemned mercenaries as disunited, ambitious and faithless, and argued that a state should rely on its own citizen soldiers. As secretary of the Florentine Republic he put this into practice by organising a Florentine militia in 1506.

Giulio Douhet was the Italian theorist of air power in the 1920s, Liddell Hart (spelt 'Liddle' in the paper) the British writer of the indirect approach, and Clausewitz the Prussian theorist of war and politics. None of them was concerned with the condottieri system, which had long disappeared by their time.

Discuss in Forum

42.

"Whoever controls the Indian Ocean will dominate Asia". These words were said by which person ?

A.Admiral Mahan
B.Jawaharlal Nehru
C.Admiral Nelson
D.General Douglas MacArthur

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: A

The words are attributed to Admiral Mahan.

Alfred Thayer Mahan, the American naval officer whose The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890) founded modern sea-power theory, is credited with saying that whoever controls the Indian Ocean will dominate Asia, and that the ocean is the key to the seven seas. The quotation is repeated in almost every Indian textbook on maritime security, though it has not been traced to a particular passage of his published work.

Nehru wrote on the importance of the sea to India but is not the source of this line. Admiral Nelson was a British commander of the Napoleonic wars, and General MacArthur was associated with the Pacific war and Korea, not with this saying.

Discuss in Forum

43.

Who among the following compared guerrillas to fish and support from people to water ?

A.Che Guevera
B.Mao Tse Tung
C.Liddle Hart
D.David Rappaport

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

The answer is Mao Tse Tung.

In On Guerrilla Warfare (1937) Mao wrote that the people are like water and the army like fish living in it. The image sums up his doctrine that a guerrilla force survives only with the support, shelter and intelligence of the local population, which is why counter-insurgency later spoke of 'draining the sea'.

Che Guevara wrote his own manual, Guerrilla Warfare (1960), built on the idea of a small armed nucleus (the foco), not on Mao's fish metaphor. Liddell Hart wrote on the indirect approach in conventional war, and David Rapoport is a scholar of terrorism known for his 'four waves' theory.

Discuss in Forum

44.

Who propounded the 'Mandala Theory' of Interstate relations ?

A.Valmiki
B.Kautilya
C.Manu
D.Shukra

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

The answer is Kautilya.

In the Arthashastra Kautilya describes the Mandala (circle of states). The ruler who seeks conquest, the vijigishu, stands at the centre; the state next to him is his natural enemy (ari), the one beyond that is a natural friend (mitra), and so on outward, with middle and neutral kings completing a circle of twelve. The theory treats neighbours as rivals and the neighbour's neighbour as an ally.

Valmiki composed the Ramayana, Manu is the lawgiver of the Manusmriti, and Shukra is credited with the Shukraniti, a later text on polity. None of them propounded the Mandala theory.

Discuss in Forum

45.

Who among the following is the author of 'Armament and History' ?

A.Jomini
B.J.F.C. Fuller
C.Hitler
D.Liddle Hart

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

The author is J.F.C. Fuller.

Major-General J.F.C. Fuller, the British pioneer of armoured warfare, published Armament and History in 1945. It traces how changes in weapons, from the phalanx to the atomic bomb, have shaped the conduct of war and the course of civilisation.

Jomini wrote The Art of War (1838) on Napoleonic strategy; Liddell Hart (spelt 'Liddle' in the paper) wrote Strategy: The Indirect Approach; and Hitler's book was Mein Kampf, a political tract rather than a military history.

Discuss in Forum

46.

Which one of the following is not recognized as a Principle of War ?

A.Economy of Force
B.Industrial Power
C.Surprise
D.Selection and maintenance of the aim

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

The answer is Industrial Power.

The principles of war followed by the Indian and British armies are: selection and maintenance of the aim, maintenance of morale, offensive action, surprise, concentration of force, economy of effort (economy of force), security, flexibility, cooperation and administration. The list goes back to J.F.C. Fuller's work after the First World War.

Economy of force, surprise and selection and maintenance of the aim all appear on it. Industrial power is an element of national power and of a country's war potential, but it is not a principle for conducting war, so it is the odd one out.

Discuss in Forum

47.

The book 'The Geography of the Peace' is authored by :

A.A.T. Mahan
B.Nicholas John Spykman
C.Karl Houshofer
D.Friedrich Ratzel

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: B

The Geography of the Peace was written by Nicholas John Spykman.

The Yale geostrategist's book was published in 1944, shortly after his death. It set out the Rimland theory: whoever controls the Rimland, the coastal belt around Eurasia, rules Eurasia and controls the destinies of the world, a reply to Mackinder's Heartland theory.

A.T. Mahan wrote The Influence of Sea Power upon History; Karl Haushofer was the German exponent of Geopolitik and Lebensraum; Friedrich Ratzel developed the organic theory of the state and the idea of living space.

Discuss in Forum

48.

Native name of Military Thinker Sun Tsu was :

A.Sun-Tao
B.Sun-Zu
C.Sun-Wu
D.Sun-Ma

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: C

Sun Tzu's personal name was Sun Wu.

"Sun Tzu" (Sunzi) is an honorific meaning Master Sun. According to the historian Sima Qian, the author of The Art of War was Sun Wu, a general from the state of Qi who served King Helu of Wu in the late sixth century BCE.

Sun-Zu is only another spelling of the honorific Sunzi, not a native personal name; Sun-Tao and Sun-Ma are not names attached to him in any source.

Discuss in Forum

49.

Carl Von Clausewitz belongs to the country of .............

A.Prussia
B.Russia
C.Germania
D.Macedonia

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: A

Carl von Clausewitz belonged to Prussia.

Born in 1780 at Burg near Magdeburg, he served as a Prussian officer in the Napoleonic Wars (spending 1812-14 in Russian service when Prussia was allied to Napoleon) and later directed the Prussian war college in Berlin. His unfinished On War was published by his widow after his death in 1831.

The unified German state did not exist until 1871, after his death, so "Germania" is not the answer; his Russian service was temporary; Macedonia has no connection with him.

Discuss in Forum

50.

Find the correct ascending chronological sequence of the following thinkers :

A.Haushofer, A.T. Mahan, Mackinder, S.B. John
B.S.B. John, Mackinder, A.T. Mahan, Haushofer
C.A.T. Mahan, Mackinder, Haushofer, S.B. John
D.Mackinder, S.B. John, Haushofer, A.T. Mahan

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: C

The key gives A.T. Mahan, Mackinder, Haushofer, S.B. John.

The three thinkers whose dates are well known settle the order. Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) published his sea-power thesis in 1890. Halford Mackinder (1861-1947) gave his Heartland paper, "The Geographical Pivot of History", in 1904. Karl Haushofer (1869-1946) built German Geopolitik in the 1920s and 1930s, after both.

Only option C keeps Mahan first, Mackinder second and Haushofer third. Option A starts with Haushofer, the latest of the three, option B puts Mahan after Mackinder, and option D ends with Mahan, the earliest of them, so all three break the known order.

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