The Thermodynamic Moment in the History of Science and War

For policy makers and for historians alike, there has never been a more urgent need to understand the relationship between science and war which has, so far, remained under-theorised. This paper examines the relationship in the context of the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars by considering the coincidental appearance of two foundational texts in the history of thermodynamics and in the history of war by Sadi Carnot and Carl von Clausewitz. On one hand, this 'thermodynamic moment' feeds the idea of escalation in war based on technological innovation, and it can reinforce material models of change. Yet the overlapping influences and similarities between the texts point instead, specifically, to a fundamental epistemological shift. War itself was being redefined in the sense that its creative capacity to build social order in the aftermath of the Revolution was being reimagined. Science, it seems, has a defining influence on war which, in order to fulfil its political purpose, is conceived as being aligned with, or part of, the natural world.