The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy

by Balzacq, Thierry; Krebs, Ronald R.

• ISBN13: 9780198890935
• ISBN10: 0198890931
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-11-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A clearly articulated, well-defined, and relatively stable grand strategy is supposed to allow the ship of state to steer a steady course through the roiling seas of global politics. However, the obstacles to formulating and implementing grand strategy are, by all accounts, imposing. The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy addresses the conceptual and historical foundations, production, evolution, and future of grand strategy from a wide range of standpoints. The seven constituent sections present and critically examine the history of grand strategy, including beyond the West; six distinct theoretical approaches to the subject; the sources of grand strategy, ranging from geography and technology to domestic politics to individual psychology and culture; the instruments of grand strategy's implementation, from military to economic to covert action; political actors', including non-state actors', grand strategic choices; the debatable merits of grand strategy, relative to alternatives; and the future of grand strategy, in light of challenges ranging from political polarization to technological change to aging populations. The result is a field-defining, interdisciplinary, and comparative text that will be a key resource for years to come.

Author Biography

Thierry Balzacq

Thierry Balzacq is Professor of International Relations at Sciences Po and Professorial Fellow at CERI-Sciences Po where he also serves as the director of graduate studies in International Relations. Balzacq held a Honorary Professorial Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh (2012-2015), where he was also Fellow for “outstanding research” at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. In 2015, Balzacq was awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Diplomacy and International Security. He held a Marie Curie Visiting Chair in the Department of International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth (2017-2019). He has published over a hundred scientific works in English and French, on Security, IR Theory, and Diplomatic Studies. Balzacq also co-edits the Oxford Studies in Grand Strategy book series.

Ronald R. Krebs is Beverly and Richard Fink Professor in the Liberal Arts and Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Ron Krebs has been named a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Israel (2012), as well as Scholar of the College of Liberal Arts (2017-2020), and a McKnight Land-Grant Professor (2006-2008) at the University of Minnesota. He has published numerous articles in both scholarly and general-interest journals, magazines, and websites. Prof. Krebs is currently editor-in-chief of the leading scholarly journal Security Studies. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Oxford University Press' Oxford Studies in Grand Strategy and of the Journal of Global Security Studies.

Table of Contents

1. The Enduring Appeal of Grand Strategy, Thierry Balzacq and Ronald R. Krebs
I. The History of Grand Strategy
2. Grand Strategy: The History of a Concept, Lawrence Freedman
3. Thucydides' Legacy in Grand Strategy, Neville Morley
4. The Clausewitzian Traditions: Die Politik and the Political Purpose of Strategy, Beatrice Heuser
5. Liddell Hart's Impact on the Study of Grand Strategy, Lukas Milevski
6. Grand Strategy Beyond the West, Karin M. Fierke
II. Theoretical Approaches
7. Rational Analysis of Grand Strategy, Charles Glaser
8. Network Theory and Grand Strategy, Daniel H. Nexon
9. Making Grand Strategy in Practice, Christian Bueger and Frank Gadinger
10. Ideas and Ideology in Grand Strategy, Thierry Balzacq and Pablo Barnier-Khawam
11. Discourse, Language, and Grand Strategy, Markus Kornprobst and Corina-Ioana Traistaru
12. Governmentality and Grand Strategy, Andrew W. Neal
III. Sources
13. Material Sources of Grand Strategy, Norrin Ripsman and Igor Kovac
14. Technological Change and Grand Strategy, Sophie-Charlotte Fischer, Andrea Gilli and Mauro Gilli
15. The Domestic Sources of Grand Strategy, Jonathan D. Caverley
16. Economic Interests and Grand Strategy, Kevin Narizny
17. Civil-Military Relations and Grand Strategy, Risa Brooks
18. Individual Psychology and Grand Strategy: Romancing the State, Brian C. Rathbun
19. Culture, Identity, and Grand Strategy, David M. McCourt
20. Rhetoric, Legitimation, and Grand Strategy, Stacie E. Goddard
IV. Instruments
21. Grand Strategy and Military Power, Pascal Vennesson
22. Diplomacy and Grand Strategy, Ole Jacob Sending
23. Grand Strategy and the Tools of Economic Statecraft, Bryan R. Early and Keith Preble
24. Covert Action and Grand Strategy, Gregory Mitrovich
25. Intelligence and Grand Strategy, Joshua Rovner
26. Financing the Grand Strategies of Great and Rising Powers, Rosella Cappella Zielinski
V. Strategic Menus and Choices
27. American Grand Strategies: Untangling the Debates, Robert Jervis
28. Strategy on the Upward Slope: The Grand Strategies of Rising States, Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson
29. Grand Strategies of Declining Powers, Paul K. MacDonald and Joseph M. Parent
30. The Grand Strategies of Small States, Anders Wivel
31. The Grand Strategies of Violent Rebel Groups, Daniel Byman
32. Grand Strategy and the Challenge of Change, William James
33. Rethinking Grand Strategic Change: Overhauls versus Adjustments in Grand Strategy, Rebecca Friedman Lissner
VI. Assessing Grand Strategy
34. Getting Grand Strategy Right, Hal Brands and Peter Feaver
35. The Challenge of Evaluating Grand Strategy, William C. Wohlforth
36. Is Grand Strategy an Illusion? Or, the Grandiosity of Grand Strategy, Richard K. Betts
37. The Limits of Grand Strategy, David M. Edelstein
38. Alternatives to Grand Strategy, Peter Dombrowski
39. Grand Strategic Thinking in History, John Bew, Maeve Ryan and Andrew Ehrhardt
VII. The Future of Grand Strategy
40. Grand Strategy in a Fractured Marketplace of Ideas, Daniel W. Drezner
41. Pluralism, Populism, and the Impossibility of Grand Strategy, Ronald R. Krebs
42. Grand Strategy Under Nonpolarity, Randall W. Schweller
43. Grand Strategy and Technological Futures, Robert G. Cantelmo and Sarah E. Kreps
44. Population Aging and Grand Strategy, Mark L. Haas