Reimagining Grand Strategy
This chapter provides an introduction into the concepts of grand strategy and geopolitics, and their conventional conceptualization in the International Relations (IR) literature. This is juxtaposed with the main theoretical and methodological perspectives developed by the literature in critical security studies and critical geopolitics that have informed the theoretical-methodological framework guiding the book’s critical discourse analysis. The chapter provides a detailed exploration of the key concepts of power/knowledge, discourse, intertextuality, and identity that are applied to the study of American grand strategy under Obama and detailed in the subsequent chapters. The chapter introduces the three basic discourse of American grand strategy under Obama (hegemony, engagement, and restraint) and the concept of hybrid discourses: hegemonic engagement and hegemonic restraint that juxtapose identity and practice.