Great Strategy of War and Peace

Author: (American) Kennedy, edited by
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Paul Kennedy, the professor of history at Yale University, can be called one of the most renowned historians of international relations and strategic history in the past two decades. He stands out in the British academic field of international relations and strategy, which has a rich tradition of historical and philosophical thinking, with works like "The Rise and Fall of Great Powers" significantly enriching the microscopic exploration and macroscopic understanding of modern international relations and national foreign strategies. His writings demonstrate a profound understanding of strategy and its multifaceted environments, and his outstanding ability to present a comprehensive overview and grand literary style has captivated countless readers, from statesmen to scholars and even the general public. The editorship of "The Grand Strategy of War and Peace" in 1991 is one of his outstanding achievements, as this book nearly serves as a milestone representing the primary and crucial development of grand strategy theory in contemporary times. It was the first to very clearly propose that grand strategy is not only applicable during wartime but also in peacetime, as long as a nation has fundamental political and legal goals, it should have a grand strategy to serve them. What is particularly important for grand strategy is the deliberate balance between objectives and means, whether in peacetime or wartime. The programmatic chapters written by Paul Kennedy himself hold significant theoretical importance. Equally important is that the book also compiles relevant essays by renowned strategic historians such as Michael Howard, J.H. Elliott, Arthur Ferrill, Elliot Cohen, and Condoleezza Rice, greatly expanding the temporal and spatial scope of grand strategy research from traditional Europe to the global scale, from ancient Rome and early modern Spain to contemporary America and the Soviet Union. As a result, the theoretical ideas of grand strategy become more comprehensive, refined, and convincing.