Abstract

Ukrainian crisis has made security closer to the world. In understanding security, it is essential to understand a grand strategy that is said to be its framework. Grand strategy is the highest level of strategy that influences a country’s destiny beyond winning and losing on the battlefield. It is an essential framework to understand international politics, from geopolitics to diplomacy, nuclear deterrence strategy.
This book picks up the following six thinkers of grand strategy. Many of their works have been translated.
① Halford Mackinder, English geographer regarded as “father of geopolitics”
② Michael Howard, English historian who led the war studies and strategic studies today
③ Bernard Brodie, American academic of international politics who established the concept of deterrence in each era
④ Henry Kissinger, American historian and practitioner of diplomacy with China and detente with the Soviet Union
⑤ Edward Luttwak, American international academic known for many writings
⑥ Martin van Creveld, Israeli historian who drastically challenged Clausewitz’s “On War”

Author’s Information

War historian. Senior Researcher at the Center for Military History, National Institute for Defense Studies, Ministry of Defense. Former Director of the Center. After joining the then National Institute for Defense Studies, Defense Agency, he served as Honorary Visiting Fellow at the School of War Studies, King's College, University of London, Visiting Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), and Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore. Part-time lecturer at the Open University of Japan and lecturer at Waseda University Open College. His books include "The Principles of Land Power" (co-edited and authored, Nihon Keizai Shimbun Publishing), "War and Logistics" (same publisher), "Liddell Hart: The Life of a Strategist and a Liberal View of War" (Chuko Bunko, 2020), "The Principles of the Science of War" (Chikuma Shobo, 2013), "Thinkers of Grand Strategy" (Nikkei Business Publications, 2023), "World War II as Total War" (Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2020), and "Series: Introduction to the Science of War" (supervised, Sogensha, 2019-). His translations include "Civilization and War" by Gutt (co-translator), "Supply Wars (revised and expanded edition)" by Krefeld (supervised translation), "The Evolution of War" (supervised translation), "The Culture of War" (supervised translation), and "A New Era of 'The Theory of War'" (supervised translation). His other works include Conflicting Currents: Japan and the United States in the Pacific (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009) and Routledge Handbook of Air Power (London: Routledge, 2018).