The New Makers of Modern Strategy

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.

"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

"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

"[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

"A Project Syndicate Best Reads in 2023"

“Makers of Modern Strategy has long been a valuable resource for understanding the relationship between military strategy and political outcomes. This newest volume combines strategies from the past with insights gleaned from an impressive group of contemporary scholars and will undoubtedly remain an important read for decades to come.”—Condoleezza Rice, director of the Hoover Institution and former US secretary of state

“A splendid endeavor, ambitious and wide-ranging. Broadly conceived, authoritative, and masterfully edited, this new volume retains and regains the pertinence and power of the original classic editions.”—Paul Kennedy, author of Victory at Sea and The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

“This superb collection arrives just in time to help restore strategic competence. As geopolitical competitions intensify globally, we must not let the valuable lessons in Makers of Modern Strategy lie inert within these covers. These are essays to be read, discussed, and applied to the challenges we are facing today.”—H. R. McMaster, former national security advisor and author of Battlegrounds and Dereliction of Duty

“Mining history’s cruel lessons, highlighting the enduring wisdom of great strategic thinkers, and delivering new insights about how democracies can thrive in an era of profound technological change and political uncertainty, The New Makers of Modern Strategy is an indispensable guide to the geopolitical challenges of the twenty-first century.”—Amy B. Zegart, professor and senior fellow at Stanford University and author of Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence

“You may not be interested in war, but war has always been interested in you. It is hard to imagine a better introduction to our conflict-ridden era than this brilliant assortment of case studies of strategic thought and action. The work’s coverage from the ancient world to the digital age, its focus on the relationships between theory and practice, and its imaginative selection of topics and authors are truly admirable.”—MacGregor Knox, London School of Economics and Political Science

“It isn’t easy to improve upon a classic, but the contributors have done a remarkable job of updating Makers of Modern Strategy for the twenty-first century. This volume honors the spirit of the original while posing new questions that will keep both volumes relevant for decades to come.”—Michael S. Neiberg, author of When France Fell: The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Alliance