Grand Strategy Beyond the West

2021 ◽  
pp. 88-103
Author(s):  
K. M. Fierke
Keyword(s):  
Family Resemblance ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Military Strategy ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Nonstate Actors ◽  
The West ◽  
Sun Tzu ◽  
Globalizing World ◽  
Grand Strategies

This chapter examines two of the most famous grand strategies with origins in Asia, identified with Sun Tzu and Gandhi. On the surface they would appear to be unfit for comparison. While Sun Tzu belongs to a tradition of military strategy, and is now part of the classical canon, Gandhi is identified with the nonviolent strategy of nonstate actors. The intention in examining the two together is to explore a family resemblance in their respective conceptions of grand strategy, even while recognizing that they are very distinct. After setting out some broad contrasts regarding cosmology, ontology, and epistemology, the chapter zooms in on the relevance of these points more specifically for understanding Sun Tzu or Gandhi. It concludes with some reflections on why the contrasts are important in a globalizing world. Both cases highlight the importance, if possible, of achieving objectives without recourse to military force, which, it argues, arises from a relational cosmology, where harmony and diversity coexist, and in which truth is not uniform but multiperspectival.

Grand Strategy and the Tools of Economic Statecraft

2021 ◽  
pp. 369-388
Author(s):  
Bryan R. Early ◽  
Keith Preble
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Economic Sanctions ◽  
Economic Cooperation ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Nonstate Actors ◽  
Commercial Policy ◽  
Economic Statecraft ◽  
Grand Strategies

Economic statecraft provides great powers with a set of valuable tools they can employ in pursuing grand strategies, but the importance of its contribution is often overlooked. This chapter provides a conceptual framework for understanding how policymakers can leverage the tools of economic statecraft to achieve major objectives in pursuit of their grand strategies, including: bargaining, balancing, generating power and prosperity, signaling and norms promotion, and influencing nonstate actors. It then maps how economic sanctions, foreign aid, strategic commercial policy, and institutionalized economic cooperation can best contribute to the realization of these objectives. The analysis reveals that the flexibility of economic sanctions and foreign aid in achieving numerous objectives helps explain why great powers rely so heavily upon them.

Charlemagne’s Health in ‘Old Age’: Did It Affect Carolingian Military Strategy?

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-53
Author(s):  
Bernard S. Bachrach
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Strategy ◽  
The West ◽  
Long Time

During the first thirty-three years of his reign as king of the Franks, i.e., prior to his coronation as emperor on Christmas day 800, Charlemagne, scholars generally agree, pursued a successful long-term offensive and expansionist strategy. This strategy was aimed at conquering large swaths of erstwhile imperial territory in the west and bringing under Carolingian rule a wide variety of peoples, who either themselves or their regional predecessors previously had not been subject to Frankish regnum.1 For a very long time, scholars took the position that Charlemagne continued to pursue this expansionist strategy throughout the imperial years, i.e., from his coronation on Christmas Day 800 until his final illness in later January 814. For example, Louis Halphen observed: “comme empereur, Charles poursuit, sans plus, l’oeuvre entamée avant l’an 800.”2 F. L. Ganshof, who also wrote several studies treating Charlemagne’s army, was in lock step with Halphen and observed: “As emperor, Charlemagne pursued the political and military course he had been following before 25 December 800.”3

Population Aging and Grand Strategy

2021 ◽  
pp. 720-736
Author(s):  
Mark L. Haas
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Demographic Trend ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
A Share

This chapter examines the effects of population aging on states’ grand strategies. Due to major reductions in fertility levels and significant increases in life expectancies over the course of the last century, a majority of countries are growing older, many at fantastic rates and extent. The number of seniors, both absolutely and as a share of states’ overall population, is reaching unprecedented levels. This worldwide demographic trend is likely to affect all dimensions of states’ grand strategies, including in the great powers, which are among the world’s oldest countries. Population aging is likely to reduce states’ military capabilities, push leaders to adopt more isolationist and peaceful foreign policies, reshape states’ core international interests to place greater emphasis on the advancement of citizens’ quality of life and the protection of particular ethnocultural identities, and increase the perceived threat posed by immigration and multicultural ideologies.

scholarly journals The Sino-Russian Relationship: Fellow Travellers in the West-dominated World

2018 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 1197-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Kaczmarski
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Dividing Line

A decade ago, Beijing's relations with Moscow were of marginal interest to China scholars. Topics such as growing Sino-American interdependence-cum-rivalry, engagement with East Asia or relations with the developing world overshadowed China's relationship with its northern neighbour. Scholars preoccupied with Russia's foreign policy did not pay much attention either, regarding the Kremlin's policy towards China as part and parcel of Russia's grand strategy directed towards the West. The main dividing line among those few who took a closer look ran between sceptics and alarmists. The former interpreted the post-Cold War rapprochement as superficial and envisioned an imminent clash of interests between the two states. The latter, a minority, saw the prospect of an anti-Western alliance.

scholarly journals Historiographical traditions and modern imperatives for the restoration of global history

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Global History ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
Globalizing World ◽  
The World ◽  
The Times

This essay has been written to serve as a prolegomenon for a new journal in Global History. It opens with a brief depiction of the two major approaches to the field (through connexions and comparisons) and moves on to survey first European and then other historiographical traditions in writing ‘centric’ histories up to the times of the Imperial Meridian 1783–1825, when Europe’s geopolitical power over all other parts of the world became hegemonic. Thereafter, and for the past two centuries, all historiographical traditions converged either to celebrate or react to the rise of the ‘West’. The case for the restoration of Global History rests upon its potential to construct negotiable meta-narratives, based upon serious scholarship that will become cosmopolitan in outlook and meet the needs of our globalizing world.

Understanding the Islamic State—A Review Essay

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 127-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Byman
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Terrorist Threat ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Raison D’État ◽  
Foreign Fighters

This article reviews several recent books on the Islamic State in order to understand its goals, motivations, strategy, and vulnerabilities. It argues that the Islamic State's ideology is powerful but also highly instrumental, offering the group legitimacy and recruiting appeal. Raison d'etat often dominates its decisionmaking. The Islamic State's strength is largely a consequence of the policies and weaknesses of its state adversaries. In addition, the group has many weaknesses of its own, notably its brutality, reliance on foreign fighters, and investment in a state as well as its tendency to seek out new enemies. The threat the Islamic State poses is most severe at the local and regional levels. The danger of terrorism to the West is real but mitigated by the Islamic State's continued prioritization of the Muslim world and the heightened focus of Western security forces on the terrorist threat. A high-quality military force could easily defeat Islamic State fighters, but there is no desire to deploy large numbers of Western ground troops, and local forces have repeatedly shown many weaknesses. In the end, containing the Islamic State and making modest rollback efforts may be the best local outcomes.

scholarly journals A Thought on Applicability of Sun Tzu’s Strategy on Marketing Strategy

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Fenny Widyani Hartanto ◽  
Maria Yoshephine Dwi Hayu Agustini
Keyword(s):  
Marketing Strategy ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Military Strategy ◽  
Sun Tzu ◽  
Art Of War ◽  
Chinese Military ◽  
The Military ◽  
A Company

Sun Tzu’s strategy is actually an art of war used by Chinese military under Sun Tzu to win the war. Its application has been widespread beyond the military strategy. It has also been adopted for business strategy. This manuscript is to examine applicability of Sun Tzu’s strategy on marketing. In particularly it examines if Sun Tzu’s strategy can be applied as marketing strategy. Review manuscripts in related topics and a case study on a company are the method for the examination. The result indicates that Sun Tzu’s strategy is applicable in marketing and can be related with specific marketing terms.

Strategy on the Upward Slope

2021 ◽  
pp. 456-473
Author(s):  
Joshua Shifrinson
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Upward Slope ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
The Rise Of China ◽  
Substantial Interest ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
New Framework

When a great power rises, what strategies does it adopt and why? Despite substantial interest in these questions due to concerns surrounding the rise of China and concomitant decline of the United States, research on rising state grand strategy remains underdeveloped. Not only do analysts lack a consistent way of describing how risers’ grand strategies vary, but insight into the drivers of rising state strategy remains inchoate. Accordingly, this chapter analyzes existing research, highlights the problems rising states confront in crafting grand strategy, advances a new framework for discussing strategy, and suggests avenues for future research.

Comparing Grand Strategies—and Their Inherent Limitations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Reich ◽  
Peter Dombrowski
Keyword(s):  
Scenario Planning ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
The U.S

This chapter begins with a personal vignette from one of the authors (Reich) regarding scenario planning and its relationship to strategizing. In this chapter, we outline the major strands of contemporary US grand strategy, and identify the conditions under which each one is employed by policymakers and, ultimately, the U.S. Navy. It then examines theories that may explain why a series of strategies run simultaneously before comprehensively examining the contemporary contending variants of grand strategy. It outlines three major variants and then distinguish two sub-categories within each variant for a total of six. It compares and contrasts the key elements of each to illustrate how – despite the fact that they may share features –is ultimately configures in a unique way.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Rebecca Lissner
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
New Information ◽  
Strategic Adjustment ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
The Cold War

More than 75 years after the end of World War II, military interventions—rather than major wars—have emerged as a defining feature of contemporary geopolitics. Yet, for all the fierce policy debates over interventions and their lessons, scholars have largely ignored the systematic linkages between these smaller-scale wars and transformations in the grand strategies of states that prosecute them. This book develops a new theory—the informational theory of strategic adjustment—to explain why military interventions can be crucibles of grand strategy. It argues that, by prosecuting a military intervention, states glean rich and rare information about adversaries’ capabilities and intentions, as well as their own military power and cost tolerance. The uniquely costly nature of warfighting renders this data particularly credible. Amidst background conditions of intense interstate competition and pervasive uncertainty, states face strong incentives to reassess their grand strategies in light of this new information. This process of grand strategic updating begins with a reassessment of the strategic assumptions directly tested on the battlefield, but it doesn’t end there. Indeed, the grand strategic effects of military interventions are far-reaching because information conveyed via warfighting is widely extrapolated to related strategic assessments. This book demonstrates the plausibility of the informational theory of strategic adjustment in three historically detailed case studies that trace the evolution of American grand strategy over the course of the Cold War and into the early post–Cold War era: the Korean, Vietnam, and First Gulf Wars.

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