• Complain

Gray Colin S. - The Future of Strategy

Here you can read online Gray Colin S. - The Future of Strategy full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. genre: Science. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

No cover
  • Book:
    The Future of Strategy
  • Author:
  • Genre:
  • Rating:
    3 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 60
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

The Future of Strategy: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The Future of Strategy" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

Polity, 2015. 148 p. ISBN-10: 0745687938. ISBN-13: 978-0745687933Strategy is not a modern invention. It is an essential and enduring feature of human history that is here to stay. In this original essay, Colin S. Gray, world-renowned scholar of strategic thought, discusses the meaning of strategy and its importance for politicians and the military as a means of achieving desired outcomes in complex, uncertain conditions.
Drawing on a wide range of examples from the Great Peloponnesian War to the Second World War, Vietnam, and the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gray ably shows how great military thinkers of the past and present have acted strategically in their various ideological, political, geographical and cultural contexts. Looking to the future, he argues that strategy will continue to provide a vital tool-kit for survival and security, but that the global threat posed by nuclear weapons remains an on-going challenge without obvious practical solutions. As Gray boldy asserts, there is no promised land ahead, only hard and dangerous times that will require us to master the theory and practice of strategy to secure our own future.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
General Theory
Politics
Prudence
Legitimacy and Justice
Historical Context
Motives
Politics the Master
The Argument: Basics of Strategy as Enduring Narrative
Roots of Strategy: Human Nature and Politics
The Meaning of Politics for Policy and Strategy
Strategy: The Great Enabler
Strategy: What It Is, and Why It Matters
The Bridge
How Strategy Works: Removing the Mystery
When Strategy Is Absent or Confused
Strategy: Limitations and Substitutes?
Theory and Practice
General Theory
Theory and Practice
National (and Cultural) Context
The Value of Strategic Theory
Strategic History: Continuity and Change
An Important Concept
What Changes, and What Does Not?
Two Hundred Years of Strategic History
Did Strategic History Have a Start Date? Could It End?
Strategy, Strategies, and Geography
The General and the Particular
Geography, History, Politics
Grand Strategy and Geostrategy
Mackinder and Spykman: Ventures in Very Grand Theory
Strategies are Joint
Strategy and the Future
The Nuclear Exception?
Conclusion: What Do We Know with High Confidence?
Strategy and the Great Stream of Time
Further Reading

Gray Colin S.: author's other books


Who wrote The Future of Strategy? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

The Future of Strategy — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Future of Strategy" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Guide
Pages
Copyright page Copyright Colin S Gray 2015 The right of Colin S Gray to be - photo 1
Copyright page

Copyright Colin S. Gray 2015

The right of Colin S. Gray to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2015 by Polity Press

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

350 Main Street

Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8793-3

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8794-0 (pb)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gray, Colin S.

The future of strategy / Colin Gray.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7456-8793-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-7456-8794-0 (paperback) 1. Strategy. 2. War (Philosophy) 3. Nuclear warfarePrevention. 4. Geopolitics. I. Title.

U162.G692 2015

355.02dc23

2015003035

Typeset in 11 on 13 pt Sabon

by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited

Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

Dedication

To the respected memory of

Aleksandr A. Svechin (18781938) the Russian Clausewitz

Rules are inappropriate in strategy.

Svechin, Strategy, 2nd edn (1927; Minneapolis, MIN: East View Information Services, 1992), 64

Preface

I am most grateful to my editor and her team at Polity Press, Dr Louise Knight, who persisted in challenging me to write relatively briefly and intelligibly. Relative brevity I did achieve, but final judgement as to intelligibility I must defer to readers. I confess that I was somewhat surprised by my own argument, and conclusions, in this book. Specifically, although I have always been sure that strategy had a secure future in our history, I had not realized, prior to writing this text, just how overwhelmingly strong the argument for strategy in our human future has to be. Readers will discover that, although my subject here is forbiddingly diverse in historical detail, the true essentials of my argument about the future of strategy are actually quite simple and intellectually cohesive. I find that our human nature demands that we organize for security, which means that we require political process and need strategy. The logic is tight and the historical evidence in its support is overwhelming. Equally, the need for strategy is certain to be as strong in the future as it has been in the past and is in the present. The argument is clear and utterly compelling, once one has worked it out. I can thank Polity for obliging me to understand and explain the future of my subject.

In addition to the staff at Polity, I must thank my professional manuscript preparer, Barbara Watts, and my wife and daughter, Valerie and Tonia, for making it possible for me to complete this challenging project.

Colin S. Gray

Wokingham

Introduction

I am a strategist. For fifty years I have spoken, written and sought to advise governments about strategy. Because this is a relatively short book on what can be a large and often apparently diverse subject, it is necessary to start by bringing order to what otherwise can appear unduly chaotic. The concept of chaos, meaning disorder and confusion, is important for our subject. Chaos always is either actively present in strategic history, or, at the least, ready in the wings threatening to become dominant in a current context. The discipline of strategy substantially is about attempts to prevent political urges from resulting in threats and violence that are not highly relevant to the motives for action. The core challenge of strategy is the attempt to control action so that it has the political effect desired. Indeed, strategy is all about the consequences of action that is tactical behaviour.

The beginning of wisdom for an approach to the understanding of strategy should be recognition of the sheer difficulty of the enterprise. The challenges to the strategist are formidable wherever one looks. Scholars' text books are almost bound to simplify in the interests of clarity, but the attempted practice of strategy meets resistance that often was unanticipated, and finds itself committed largely to the prevention of chaos. However, although chaos rules more often in strategic history than one might like, fortunately it is possible to identify a handful of ideas that can be helpful in making an effort to make this vitally important subject more intelligible.

General Theory

First and foremost, the entire, hugely diverse, strategic history of Mankind has been commanded fundamentally by the dicta of a general theory of strategy that applies to all times, places and circumstances. This general theory does what such a theory must, it explains the nature and basic functioning of its subject, without privilege or prejudice to particular issues. My personal preference for a general theory of strategy contains twenty-three items at present (see table ). A secure grasp of this theory serves as education that should enable practising strategists to cope better with the specific challenges they face. I developed this version of theory in the course of my professional career as the result of a pressing need to understand how best to apply military force of many kinds in action or as threats. I have found this general theory suitable as an important aid for coping with challenges regarding arms control, nuclear weapons, landpower, seapower, airpower, cyber power, special operations and geopolitics. This theory, or variants of it, has to be the essential basis for the understanding of all strategic topics.

Politics

As the general theory brings order to all aspects of the broad subject of strategy, so too does explicit recognition of the authority of politics. Strategy is not politics, but it is always about politics. No matter the particular technical and cultural detail, strategy has to be ruled by superior political process. This is not discretionary. Violence, organized or other, always and everywhere has some political meaning. The outcome of warfare often is not what many people expected, but that does not negate the merit in this second theme. Journalists and scholars are apt to forget politics in the excitement or perceived impressiveness of policy and policymaking. But the making of policy is controlled by politics. Moreover, the dignity within which policy is wrapped can serve unhelpfully to bury from view appreciation of the politics that rule policymaking process.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The Future of Strategy»

Look at similar books to The Future of Strategy. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «The Future of Strategy»

Discussion, reviews of the book The Future of Strategy and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.