Christopher Bassford (b.1957) is an American military historian. He completed a Ph.D. in modern European history at Purdue University and became director of studies in the theory and nature of war at the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Command and Staff College (where he remains an adjunct professor), then associate professor of National Policy Issues at the U.S. Army War College. He is presently Professor of Strategy at the National War College, in Washington, DC. He served five years on active duty as a U.S. Army field artillery officer, with tours in Korea and Germany. Purdue University (Purdue) is a land-grant, public university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States. ... United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the second smallest of the five branches of the United States armed forces, with 170,000 active and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2002. ... The United States Army War College is a United States Army school located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500 acre (2 km²) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks, a military post dating back to the 1770s. ... The National War College (NWC) of the United States is a school in the National Defense University. ... Korea (Korean: 한국 or 조선, see below) is a geographic area, civilization, and former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. ...

Dr. Bassford has written scholarly studies, military doctrine, and articles for the popular press. He is the author of several books, including Clausewitz in English: The Reception of Clausewitz in Britain and America, 1815-1945 (Oxford University Press, 1994) and The Spit-Shine Syndrome: Organizational Irrationality in the American Field Army (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988). He is one of the editors of the Boston Consulting Group's business-oriented Clausewitz On Strategy: Inspiration and Insight from a Master Strategist (New York: Wiley, 2001). From 1995 to 1999 he was involved in the writing of USMC doctrine, authoring MCDP 1-1, Strategy; MCDP 1-2, Campaigning; MCWP 5-1, Marine Corps Planning (Draft); MCWP 2-15.3, Ground Reconnaissance Operations; and MCWP 3-2, Aviation Operations, as well as participating in the writing of several other USMC and Joint concepts and doctrinal publications. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a management consulting firm founded by Harvard Business School alum Bruce Henderson in 1963. ...

His academic articles include "John Keegan and the Grand Tradition of Trashing Clausewitz," War in History, November 1994. "Reclaiming the Clausewitzian Trinity," Parameters, Autumn 1995. "Review essay, Carl von Clausewitz, On War" (various translations and editions; originally published, 1832), Defense Analysis, June 1996. "Doctrinal Complexity: Nonlinearity in Marine Corps Doctrine," in F.G. Hoffman and Gary Horne, eds., Maneuver Warfare Science, United States Marine Corps Combat Development Command, 1998. "Review: Carl von Clausewitz, eds./trans. Peter Paret and Daniel Moran, Historical and Political Writings," (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), The International History Review, vol.XIV, no.4 (November 1992).

He is the internet editor of The Clausewitz Homepage, a large educational website that focuses on the German military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz. Bassford's own work on Clausewitz concentrates on the evolution of Clausewitz's reception, reputation, and impact in the English-speaking world. He is interested in the relationship between Clausewitzian theory and concepts from the field of nonlinear science. A young Clausewitz Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (June 1, 1780 – November 16, 1831) was a Prussian general and influential military theorist. ...