WAR, PEACE, AND VICTORY: Strategy and Statecraft for the Next Century

by Colin S. Gray ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 27, 1990

From think-tank intellectual Gray, president of the National Institute for Public Policy and author of The Geopolitics of Super Power (1987): an inconclusive analysis of the need for guidelines to ensure America's national security in the post-Cold War world. Gray's insights are buried under thick layers of clotted prose, but his primary aim is clear: to unite all phases of strategic thinking. Strategy, he tells us, is ""the direction of power so that it serves policy purpose""; it is ""about winning in peace as well as war."" Sound thinking in strategy, Gray states, must take into account five linked themes: strategic unity; geography (the most important to Gray, who considers the Eurasian ""Rimland"" as the prize the US must keep from domination by any one foreign power); national history; national culture; and technological change. But what, specifically, should America's grand strategy be for the 21st century? After a seemingly endless buildup, Gray dodges the question and leaves the matter vague. Previous strategy from 1945 until now, he does say, is passÉ; there is a need for totally new strategic thinking due to the ""retreat of Soviet strategic ambition."" This will allow the US to cautiously scale back its European commitments, Gray believes, if these are replaced by ""some new structure wherein linked regional balances provide the lion's share of ordering effective for security."" Of interest mostly to strategic thinkers and specialists, and offering merely a first step along the road that America must now travel.

Pub Date: July 27, 1990

ISBN: 0671740296

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION