The New Makers of Modern Strategy - by Hal Brands (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The essential resource on military and political strategy and the making of the modern world

The New Makers of Modern Strategy is the next generation of the definitive work on strategy and the key figures who have shaped the theory and practice of war and statecraft throughout the centuries. Featuring entirely new entries by a who's who of world-class scholars, this new edition provides global, comparative perspectives on strategic thought from antiquity to today, surveying both classical and current themes of strategy while devoting greater attention to the Cold War and post-9/11 eras. The contributors evaluate the timeless requirements of effective strategy while tracing the revolutionary changes that challenge the makers of strategy in the contemporary world. Amid intensifying global disorder, the study of strategy and its history has never been more relevant. The New Makers of Modern Strategy draws vital lessons from history's most influential strategists, from Thucydides and Sun Zi to Clausewitz, Napoleon, Churchill, Mao, Ben-Gurion, Andrew Marshall, Xi Jinping, and Qassem Soleimani.

With contributions by Dmitry Adamsky, John Bew, Tami Davis Biddle, Hal Brands, Antulio J. Echevarria II, Elizabeth Economy, Charles Edel, Eric S. Edelman, Andrew Ehrhardt, Lawrence Freedman, John Lewis Gaddis, Francis J. Gavin, Christopher J. Griffin, Ahmed S. Hashim, Eric Helleiner, Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, Seth G. Jones, Robert Kagan, Jonathan Kirshner, Matthew Kroenig, James Lacey, Guy Laron, Michael V. Leggiere, Margaret MacMillan, Tanvi Madan, Thomas G. Mahnken, Carter Malkasian, Daniel Marston, John H. Maurer, Walter Russell Mead, Michael Cotey Morgan, Mark Moyar, Williamson Murray, S.C.M. Paine, Sergey Radchenko, Iskander Rehman, Thomas Rid, Joshua Rovner, Priya Satia, Kori Schake, Matt J. Schumann, Brendan Simms, Jason K. Stearns, Hew Strachan, Sue Mi Terry, and Toshi Yoshihara.

Review Quotes

"It is hard to overstate the importance of this book. The essays provide excellent starting points for research on almost any topic relevant to practitioners, and many of them will endure as the best summaries of thinking on their respective subjects. . . . Reading the book cover to cover would be terrific preparation for a year at any American professional military education institution--or for service in Congress or the executive branch at a time when American strategy appears to be faltering."---John C. Erickson and John A. Nagl, Parameters

"Hal Brands has rounded up over 40 authors for his new edition of The New Makers of Modern Strategy: from the Ancient World to the Digital Age. . . .The third great volume of Makers of Modern Strategy that will feature on every pertinent university or staff college reading list."---Beatrice Heuser, Journal of Strategic Studies

"The book is a great scholarly achievement that has set a new and probably long-lasting benchmark in strategic studies."---Marco Wyss, Journal of Military History and Historiography

"A Project Syndicate Best Reads in 2023"

"[Brands] gathers a college of 45 such experts. All are wise after the facts of their field, and each attempts the historian's equivalent of the owl's neck rotation--a sweep that, taking in past and present, looks to the future . . . the scholarship on strategy has become internationalized, and Mr. Brands broadens his sights beyond the familiar theorists and practitioners--and beyond the battlefield."---Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His books include The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today.