Jornal de Estudos de Defesa e Gestão de Recursos

Grand Strategy in Grand Complexity Consolidating Ideas, Interests, and Resources in a Postmodern World

Hans-Joachim K Ruff-Stahl

Grand Strategy in Grand Complexity Consolidating Ideas, Interests, and Resources in a Postmodern World

For Liddell Hart, war is a prerequisite for grand strategy. In his view, grand strategy should “look beyond the war to the subsequent peace” and seek to combine all instruments of national power and the nation’s resources “to avoid damage to the future state of peace – for security and prosperity”. On the contrary, the U.S. engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq suggest that a grand strategy is not a prerequisite to age war. Hence, why not think about grand strategy before the next war? The problem is, of course, that the future cannot be predicted.