Successful Strategies Triumphing in War and Peace from Antiquity to the Present

Successful Strategies is a fascinating new study of the key factors that have contributed to the development and execution of successful strategies throughout history. With a team of leading historians, Williamson Murray and Richard Hart Sinnreich examine how, and to what effect states, individuals and military organizations have found a solution to complex and seemingly insoluble strategic problems to reach success. Bringing together grand, political and military strategy, the book features thirteen essays which each explores a unique case or aspect of strategy. The focus ranges from individuals such as Themistocles, Bismarck and Roosevelt to organizations and bureaucratic responses. Whether discussing grand strategy in peacetime or that of war or politics, these case studies are unified by their common goal of identifying in each case the key factors that contributed to success as well as providing insights essential to any understanding of the strategic challenges of the future.

Introduction Williamson Murray; 1. The strategic thought of Themistocles Victor Davis Hanson; 2. The grand strategy of the Roman Empire James Lacey; 3. Giraldus Cembrensis, Edward I, and the conquest of Wales Clifford J. Rogers; 4. Creating the British way of war: English strategy in the War of the Spanish Succession Jamel Otswald; 5. Failed, broken, or galvanized? Prussia and 1806 Dennis Showalter; 6. Victory by trial and error: Britain's struggle against Napoleon Richard Hart Sinnreich; 7. The strategy of Lincoln and Grant Wayne Hsieh; 8. Bismarckian strategic policy, 1871–90 Marcus Jones; 9. Dowding and the British strategy of air defense, 1936–40 Colin Gray; 10. US naval strategy and Japan Williamson Murray; 11. US grand strategy in World War II Peter R. Mansoor; 12. American grand strategy and the unfolding of the Cold War, 1945–61 Bradford A. Lee; 13. The Reagan Administration's strategy toward the Soviet Union Thomas G. Mahnken; Afterword Richard Hart Sinnreich.

Professor Murray has just completed a two-year stint as a Minerva Fellow at the Naval War College and is at present serving as an adjunct professor at the Marine Corps University.
Rick Sinnreich retired from the Army in 1990. A 1965 West Point graduate, he earned a master's degree in foreign affairs from Ohio State University and is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the National War College. His active military service included field artillery commands from battery through division artillery, combat service in Vietnam, teaching tours at West Point and Fort Leavenworth, and staff assignments on the Army, Joint, and National Security Council staffs, as assistant executive to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and as Army Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He helped found and later directed the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies, and has published widely in military and foreign affairs. Since retiring from military service, Sinnreich has consulted with a wide range of defense-related agencies and participated in numerous Army and joint studies and war games. For the past thirteen years, he has written a weekly defense column for Lawton, Oklahoma's Sunday Constitution, often reprinted by the The Washington Post, ARMY Magazine, and other journals.