May 17, 2020
Our third seminar, devoted to "The Nature & Utility of Grand Strategy,"
addressed several questions: (1) What is grand strategy? (2) Is grand strategy now possible in the US? (3) In the presence of the Chinese challenge, is a US grand strategy necessary? (4) If necessary, but not possible, then what? Suggested readings included:
Reading #1:
Pauline Shanks Kaurin, “It Was Grand, But Was It Strategy,” The Strategy Bridge, May 4, 2020: https://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2020/5/4/it-was-grand-but-was-it-strategy-revisiting-the-origins-story-of-grand-strategy.
Reading #2:
Daniel W. Drezner, Ronald R. Krebs, and Randall Schweller, “The End of Grand Strategy: America Must Think Small,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2020: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2020-04-13/end-grand-strategy.
Reading #3:
Elbridge A. Colby and A. Wess Mitchell, “The Age of Great-Power Competition,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2020: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-12-10/age-great-power-competition.