ABSTRACT

The second edition of Strategic Studies: A Reader brings together key essays on strategic theory by some of the leading contributors to the field. This revised volume contains several new essays and updated introductions to each section.

The volume comprises hard-to-find classics in the field as well as the latest scholarship. The aim is to provide students with a wide-ranging survey of the key issues in strategic studies, and to provide an introduction to the main ideas and themes in the field. The book contains six extensive sections, each of which is prefaced by a short introductory essay:

    • The Uses of Strategic Theory
    • Interpretation of the Classics
    • Instruments of War, Intelligence and Deception
    • Nuclear Strategy
    • Irregular Warfare and Small Wars
    • Future Warfare, Future Strategy

Overall, this volume strikes a balance between theoretical works, which seek to discover generalisations about the nature of modern strategy, and case studies, which attempt to ground the study of strategy in the realities of modern war.

This new edition will be essential reading for all students of strategic studies, security studies, military history and war studies, as well as for professional military college students.

part I|43 pages

The uses of strategic theory

part II|77 pages

Interpretation of the classics

chapter 4|23 pages

Who is afraid of Carl von Clausewitz?

A guide to the perplexed

chapter 5|25 pages

The art of war

chapter 6|4 pages

Strategy

The indirect approach

part III|75 pages

Instruments of war, intelligence and deception

part IV|58 pages

Nuclear strategy

chapter 12|16 pages

The absolute weapon

chapter 14|21 pages

Attacking the atom

Does bombing nuclear facilities affect proliferation?

part V|77 pages

Irregular warfare and small wars

part VI|108 pages

Future warfare, future strategy

chapter 19|12 pages

Weapons

The growth and spread of the precision-strike regime

chapter 22|16 pages

From Kadesh to Kandahar

Military theory and the future of war