It is better to win than to lose. Our paleolithic ancestors already knew that having a rock in your hand gave you a military advantage. But not all strategies must involve bloodshed. The New Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age will introduce numerous ways of winning without rocks or rockets, but such areas as; economics, sociology agronomy, engineering, and psychology. The forty-five contributors to the book will take us from Pericles and his asymmetric strategy in the Peloponnesian Wars to electronic spying of today. What are the potential strategic advantages for competing sides in the use of space? With the growing ability of each side to precisely calculate each other’s strength and with AI, will wars be no longer necessary? We invite those seriously interested in history and politics to our SDG.
The core book is over 1000 pages long, but the required reading will be shortened to a manageable number of pages.
Week Chapters and Topics
1 1 The History of an Idea. 2Thucydides and Polybius, and the Legacy of the Ancient World. 3 Sun Zi and the search for a Timeless Logic of Strategy.
2 4 Machiavelli and the Naissance of Modern Strategy,5 The Elusive Meaning and Enduring Relevance of Clausewitz,6 Jomini Modern War, and Strategy: The triumph of the Essential.
3 7 Alfred Thayer Mahan and the Strategy of Sea Power, 8 Kant, Paine, and Strategies of Transformation, 9 Alexander Hamilton and the Financial Sinews of Strategy.
4 10 Economic Foundations of Strategy, 11 Sully, Richelieu, and Mazarin: French Strategies of Equilibrium in the Seventeenth Century, 12 Generational Competition in a Multipolar World: William III and Andre-Hercules de Fleury.
5 13 Napoleon and the Strategy of a Single Point, 14 John Quincy Adams and the Challenge of a Democratic Strategy, 15 Strategic Excellence: Tecumseh and the Shawnee Confederacy, Francis Lieber and the Laws of War, and the Origins of the Liberal International Order.
6 16 Francis Lieber and the Laws of War and the Origins of the International Orde 17 Japan Caught between Maritime and Continental Imperialism 18 Strategies of Anti-Imperialism Resistance: Gandhi, Bhat Sing and Fanon
7 19. Strategy, War plans and the First World War 20 Decisive war Versus Strategy of Attrition 21 Strategy of Total War 22 Woodrow Wilson and the Rise of Modern America
8 23 Democratic Leaders and the Strategy of Coalition Warfare: Churchill and Roosevelt and WW II 24 The Hidden Hand of History: Toynbee and the Search for World Order 25 Strategy of Geopolitical Revolution: Hitler and Stalin 26 Mao Zedong and the Strategies of Nested war
9 27 Nuclear Strategy in Theory and Practice 28The Elusive Nature of Nuclear Strategy 29 Limited War and the Nuclear Age: American Strategy in Korea 30 Ben Gurion and Nasar and the Strategy of the Arab-Israel Conflict
10 31 Nehru and the Strategy of Non-Alignment 32 Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara: Theory Over History and Experience 33 Strategies of Détente and Competition : Brezhnev and Moscow’s Cold War
11 34 Arms Competition, Arms Control, and Strategies of Peacetime from Fisher to Ragan 35 Dilemma of Dominance American Strategy from H. W. Bush to Barack Obama 26 The Two Marshalls : Nicolai Ogarkov , Andrew Marshals and the Revolution of Military Affairs
12 37 Strategies and Counterstrategies and the Counterterrorism 9/11 38 Strategies of Jehad: From Prophet Muhammad to Contemporary Times 39 Xi Jinping and the Strategy of China Restoration 40 Soleimani Gerasimov and the Strategy of Irregular Warfare
13 41 The Strength of Weakness: The Kim Dynasty and the North Korea’s Strategy of Survival 42 Strategies of Persistent Conflict: Kabila and the Congo Wars
14 43 Strategy and Grand Strategy in the New Dominions 44 A Revolution in Intelligence 45 Grammar, Logic, and Grand Strategy
The New Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age, Hal Brands, Editor, Princeton University Press, 2023