Most writing about strategy has focused on individual strategic theorists or great military leaders. This book focuses instead on the messy processes by which rulers and states have framed strategy in the past - a subject of vital practical importance to strategists, and of great interest to students of strategy and statecraft. It consists of 17 case studies that range from fifth-century Athens and Ming China to Hitler's Germany, Israel, and the post-1945 United States. The studies analyse, within a common interpretive framework, precisely how rulers and states have made strategy. The introduction emphasises the constants in the rapidly shifting world of the strategist; the concluding essay tries to understand the forces that have driven the transformation of strategy since 400 BC and seem likely to continue to transform it in the future.

This volume focuses on the processes by which rulers and states have framed strategy from the fifth century BC to the present.
Reviews
"This book traces the processes that resulted in military strategies in 17 cases, ranging from ancient Greece and Rome to American nuclear strategy....Each essay is self-contained, and academics searching for brief but expert analyses of strategic case studies for teaching purposes will welcome this book." Foreign Affairs
"...the essays, including those on Israel and the United States in the nuclear age, are presented with remarkable verve and freshness." Brian Bond, Times Literary Supplement
"The essays by some of the finest strategic analysts in the world, both historians and historically minded political scientists, are of a uniformly high quality. The Making of Strategy is an exceptional work. Anyone who wishes to understand the essence of strategy-making as a process, and the factors that influence strategy-making will profit by reading these essays." Mackubin T. Owens, Strategic Review
"One of the advantages of the book is its essays on lesser-known periods for some powers....Military historians and political scientists can benefit from this work, as can students from the upper-division undergraduate level onward." R. Higham, Choice
"The Making of Strategy: Rulers, States, and War offers an important collection of essays which examines the process of strategic decision-making from the Peloponnesian Wars to the nuclear age." The International History Review



Book Information
ISBN 9780521566278
Author Williamson Murray
Format Paperback
Page Count 704
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 925g
Dimensions(mm) 227mm * 149mm * 36mm