Joshua Rovner, Strategy and Grand Strategy
Wartime leaders should understand the link between violent means and political ends. They should also have a sense of how strategic decisions will affect the post-war peace. Yet they often fail to make these connections. Mistaking strategy for grand strategy, or misunderstanding the relationship between them, can frustrate soldiers and statesmen alike. Sometimes it can lead to national ruin.
In a new Adelphi book from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), SIS Professor Joshua Rovner offers a lucid analysis of strategy (a theory of victory) and grand strategy (a theory of security). He demonstrates vividly how these concepts interact in case studies from antiquity to the present, and he describes the implications for war and peace at a time of extraordinary technological change. Rovner’s work will prove indispensable to policymakers, scholars and anyone seeking to grasp these essential but often misunderstood concepts.
"Joshua Rovner is one of the most creative strategic studies scholars of his generation. Anyone interested in the theory and practice of strategy and grand strategy should read his new book."
-Hal Brands, Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
"This brilliant book finally clears up the widespread conceptual confusion surrounding the terms “strategy” and “grand strategy”. In a way only Joshua Rovner can deliver, the book is analytically sharp, historically illuminating, and well worth your time as we enter a new era of great power competition."
-Vipin Narang, Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy (US).
"Joshua Rovner provides an extremely useful and enlightening distinction between grand strategy and strategy. It helps us understand how in wars and conflicts, past and present, the absence of an alignment between the two breeds disaster."
-Professor Beatrice Heuser, Head of Strategy Teaching, General Staff Academy of the Bundeswehr.
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