Emergent Strategy and Grand Strategy

How American Presidents Succeed in Foreign Policy
Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4214-2377-7
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 452 g

What if successful strategies are sometimes formed through an emergent process of learning and adaptation?

Is following a coherent grand strategy the key to achieving successful outcomes in American foreign policy? For many experts in academia and Washington, the answer is yes. Policymakers usually face criticism when they take incremental actions based on short-term considerations. But could such actions actually converge into a successful emergent strategy over time?

Ionut Popescu conclusively shows that in some cases, an emergent learning model leads to better overall strategic performance than a long-term strategic plan or framework. Popescu argues that it is time to rethink the origins of some of the most important successes and failures of America’s tenure as a global superpower after World War II. Presenting empirical data culled from archival research and interviews with higher-ups, Popescu covers eight US presidential administrations, ranging from Truman to Obama, to demonstrate that senior policymakers should be skeptical of the idea that formulating and implementing a long-term grand strategy is the road to a successful foreign policy legacy.

Instead, the book asserts, leaders should prioritize learning from the almost unavoidable mistakes they will make early in their careers and adapting their plans to unanticipated events and changes in the international environment. Emergent Strategy and Grand Strategy thus offers both scholars and practitioners of foreign policy an original theoretical framework to explain strategic success.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Popescu, Ionut

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
1. Grand Strategy, Emergent Strategy, and Foreign Policy Success
2. George Kennan, Containment, and the Beginning of the Cold War
3. Globalizing Containment
4. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Project Solarium, and the New Look
5. Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Détente
6. Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War
7. George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and the Post–Cold War Era
8. George W. Bush and the War on Terror
9. Shape or Adapt?
Epilogue
Appendix
Notes
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Popescu, Ionut
Ionut Popescu is an assistant professor of political science at Texas State University.