This essay examines Carl von Clausewitz's concept of the "remarkable trinity" — a framework explaining war through the interplay of the people (passion), the commander and army (chance and probability), and the government (rational calculation). The paper argues that "the people" constitute the most important element of the trinity because they embody the irrational forces of primordial violence, hatred, and enmity that ultimately initiate and sustain wars. Drawing on sources from Clausewitz scholarship, the essay contends that while all three elements are interconnected, the other two depend fundamentally on the people, without whose participation no war can take place.
The nature of war remains the same over time: it is violent, it involves conflicts for political goals, it ends the lives of civilians and military personnel abruptly, and it tears families apart. Carl von Clausewitz developed a trinity to explain the occurrence of wars, placing emphasis on the political and moral dimensions of armed conflict. He stressed how the different elements of the trinity interact with one another. According to Clausewitz, the trinity is an interactive set of three forces that drive wars in the real world. It is composed of primordial violence, enmity, and hatred — forces he regarded as blind and natural in character.
The three aspects of the trinity that Clausewitz identified were the people, the commander and his army, and the government. Within this framework, passion is associated with the people; chance, probability, courage, and talent are represented by the commander and army; and political aims are expressed through the rational calculations of the government (Tziarras, 2013).
When this trinity is examined critically, the people — representing passion — emerge as its most important element. This conclusion follows from several reasons. First, the passions kindled in war already exist inherently within the people. The urge to go to war is present in the population before any conflict begins, and it is this urge that plays the decisive role in the commencement of wars. This drive may arise from government policies, from the actions of the military, or from deeply held convictions among the people themselves.
The scope of the courage and talent that the commander and army bring to bear is shaped by circumstance and probability — factors that are secondary to the foundational will of the people. If the people have already resolved to go to war, the commander becomes a supporting actor rather than a primary one. The decision of whether or not to go to war ultimately lies with the people, making them the principal determining factor in whether a conflict takes place at all.
The people are associated with irrational forces — specifically, the emotions of primordial violence, hatred, and enmity that drive communities into war. The army and military forces, by contrast, are termed non-rational: they are governed by chance and probability rather than by human intention or emotion. The mandate of the army is to manage these non-rational factors under the direction of the commander. Crucially, the actual outbreak of war does not depend directly on these non-rational factors; they are present as a consequence of conflict rather than as its cause.
Because irrational forces are the primary driver of wars, and because these forces are located in the people, the people hold the foundational position in the trinity. The non-rational forces associated with the army are themselves dependent on the existence of the irrational forces that originate in the people. The government, meanwhile, is associated with rational forces — specifically, policy and strategic calculation. Yet even when governments craft policies that lead to war, it is the people who are directly affected by the resulting emotions and who carry out the physical act of warfare. As Bassford and Villacres (2010) argue, the politician does not take part in the physical reality of war; it is the people who execute what policy sets in motion.
"Leaders are themselves members of the people"
These three aspects are like different codes of law — rooted within their subjects but varying in how they relate to each other. Even though a balance must be struck among the three elements, the aspect of the people remains the most important. All three elements of the trinity are interconnected in the occurrence of war, yet the people occupy its center, because the other two aspects revolve around them and depend upon them regardless of circumstance. A war cannot take place without the involvement or participation of people. It is therefore clear that the people constitute the most important aspect of Clausewitz's trinity and stand at the center of the other two elements.
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