Grand Strategy POLI 4139
10/04/21
Professor David James Gill
Aims
- How can you affect or create your own grand strategy
- How can we do a better job than policy makers? Get comfortable with these kinds of ideas
Do readings before seminars so that you can understand the puzzles and do a better job in person
The sooner you start on your essays the better you'll do, so meet with him sooner
Two assessments:
- 800 word article review due on 3 pm November 17th 20% of grade
- Essay is 80% of your mark, due on January 6 at 3 pm
There is a reading week, and the session after will have an essay review session
Defining Grand Strategy
- There are many definitions, and all are contested, some are broader some are more specific about just
what states do
- Proven notoriously difficult to define because strategy can mean so much
- You have to make your definition testable, it has to function, can apply to situations
- An attempt by political leadership to articulate and coordinate both the government and the people
towards a crucial important goal (usually thought of as fighting wars) but also does not have to involve
war (we won cold war without fighting the soviets) can rely on our economic relations
- Historically ignorant of our own history : selling point of grand strategy is an interest in history
- We will cover subjects that grand strategists think we should know, well be dealing with ideas,
dilemmas, historical evidence etc.
- All states allegedly have different grand strategies, we need to bring it all together to understand
John Lewis Gaddis : known as the father of grand strategy
- Using what you have to get where you want to go
- There is a big divide in grand strategy when some people think it only applies to war while others think
it applies to everything at all time
- Gaddis is emphasizing what is at the core of grand strategy (means and ends, can you achieve what you
want and how are you going to do so)
Obama said that his job is to look at the whole picture to lead the US to where it wants to go
- However you must have the resources to reach the objective, everything must be realistic (if you buy
into Gaddis definition)
, “All states have a grand strategy (not a conscious choice)” - other definition E. Luttwak
- Everything else doesn't matter, this is at the core of political
- Whether a state knows it or not
- Grand strategy is at the highest level
Nina Silove: grand strategy has three meanings
- Detailed plan
- Organizing principle that is used by people to guide decisions
- Patterned in state behavior
Grand Behaviors
Grand Plans
Grand Principles
P Feaver : Blends disciplines of history, political science, public policy, and economics
- Makes things more relevant
You’ve got to figure out which definition works for you
History and Theory
Containment:
- Famous example of grand strategy
- George Kennan - trying to contain the Soviet Union
- This strategy explains the United States actions throughout the Cold War
- Soviets were insecure and needed to paint the rest of the world as cruel, and thus Kennan
suggested a long term containment plan of the Russians
- The idea of containment bled into the economic, political and social actions of US during the
Cold War
- As a grand strategist you are trying to lump everything together to understand the big picture
- Lumper: to impose order on the past, can simplify history, but could also overlook things,
Splitters: like to point out exceptions, qualifications towards the particular, but can get hung up
on details : but both are necessary
- Theories make the world comprehensible by zeroing in on the most important factors
- Grand strategy is about Simplifying complexity
- If we included every detail on a map we wouldn't be able to read it so we must simplify
Extreme view: if you are a realist it's all about power so that is the large underlying factor driving grand strategy
vs.
Kissinger: personalities make the difference, focusing on details help describe the grand strategy
Historiography
- Means historians disagrees with one another
- Disagreeing about the context of a war, or how variables are highlighted more than others
10/04/21
Professor David James Gill
Aims
- How can you affect or create your own grand strategy
- How can we do a better job than policy makers? Get comfortable with these kinds of ideas
Do readings before seminars so that you can understand the puzzles and do a better job in person
The sooner you start on your essays the better you'll do, so meet with him sooner
Two assessments:
- 800 word article review due on 3 pm November 17th 20% of grade
- Essay is 80% of your mark, due on January 6 at 3 pm
There is a reading week, and the session after will have an essay review session
Defining Grand Strategy
- There are many definitions, and all are contested, some are broader some are more specific about just
what states do
- Proven notoriously difficult to define because strategy can mean so much
- You have to make your definition testable, it has to function, can apply to situations
- An attempt by political leadership to articulate and coordinate both the government and the people
towards a crucial important goal (usually thought of as fighting wars) but also does not have to involve
war (we won cold war without fighting the soviets) can rely on our economic relations
- Historically ignorant of our own history : selling point of grand strategy is an interest in history
- We will cover subjects that grand strategists think we should know, well be dealing with ideas,
dilemmas, historical evidence etc.
- All states allegedly have different grand strategies, we need to bring it all together to understand
John Lewis Gaddis : known as the father of grand strategy
- Using what you have to get where you want to go
- There is a big divide in grand strategy when some people think it only applies to war while others think
it applies to everything at all time
- Gaddis is emphasizing what is at the core of grand strategy (means and ends, can you achieve what you
want and how are you going to do so)
Obama said that his job is to look at the whole picture to lead the US to where it wants to go
- However you must have the resources to reach the objective, everything must be realistic (if you buy
into Gaddis definition)
, “All states have a grand strategy (not a conscious choice)” - other definition E. Luttwak
- Everything else doesn't matter, this is at the core of political
- Whether a state knows it or not
- Grand strategy is at the highest level
Nina Silove: grand strategy has three meanings
- Detailed plan
- Organizing principle that is used by people to guide decisions
- Patterned in state behavior
Grand Behaviors
Grand Plans
Grand Principles
P Feaver : Blends disciplines of history, political science, public policy, and economics
- Makes things more relevant
You’ve got to figure out which definition works for you
History and Theory
Containment:
- Famous example of grand strategy
- George Kennan - trying to contain the Soviet Union
- This strategy explains the United States actions throughout the Cold War
- Soviets were insecure and needed to paint the rest of the world as cruel, and thus Kennan
suggested a long term containment plan of the Russians
- The idea of containment bled into the economic, political and social actions of US during the
Cold War
- As a grand strategist you are trying to lump everything together to understand the big picture
- Lumper: to impose order on the past, can simplify history, but could also overlook things,
Splitters: like to point out exceptions, qualifications towards the particular, but can get hung up
on details : but both are necessary
- Theories make the world comprehensible by zeroing in on the most important factors
- Grand strategy is about Simplifying complexity
- If we included every detail on a map we wouldn't be able to read it so we must simplify
Extreme view: if you are a realist it's all about power so that is the large underlying factor driving grand strategy
vs.
Kissinger: personalities make the difference, focusing on details help describe the grand strategy
Historiography
- Means historians disagrees with one another
- Disagreeing about the context of a war, or how variables are highlighted more than others
