The Making of Strategy: Rulers, States, and War

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Cambridge University Press, 1996 M05 31 - 680 pages
Moving beyond the limited focus of the individual strategic theorist or the great military leader, The Making of Strategy concentrates instead on the processes by which rulers and states have formed strategy. Seventeen case studies--from the fifth century B.C. to the present--analyze through a common framework how strategists have sought to implement a coherent course of action against their adversaries. This fascinating book considers the impact of such complexities as the geographic, political, economic and technical forces that have driven the transformation of strategy since the beginning of civilization and seem likely to alter the making of strategy in the future.

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Contents

Introduction On strategy
1
Athenian strategy in the Peloponnesian War
24
The strategy of a warriorstate Rome and the wars against Carthage 264201 BC
56
Chinese strategy from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries
85
The making of strategy in Habsburg Spain Philip IIs bid for mastery 15561598
115
The origins of a global strategy England from 1558 to 1713
151
A quest for glory The formation of strategy under Louis XIV 16611715
178
To the edge of greatness The United States 17831865
205
The road to ideological war Germany 19181945
352
The collapse of empire British strategy 19191945
393
The strategy of innocence? The United States 19201945
428
The illusion of security France 19191940
466
Strategy for class war The Soviet Union 19171941
498
The evolution of Israeli strategy The psychology of insecurity and the quest for absolute security
534
Strategy in the nuclear age The United States 19451991
579
Conclusion Continuity and revolution in the making of strategy
614

Strategic uncertainties of a nationstate PrussiaGermany 18711918
242
The weary titan Strategy and policy in Great Britain 18901918
278
The strategy of the decisive weight Italy 18821922
307

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