Introduction to Strategic Studies

Part of the Strategic Studies curriculum

Strategic Studies 101 - Introduction to Strategic Studies

Welcome to Strategic Studies 101. This course is a first-year core course in the Strategic Studies curriculum. Its active learning content should be the equivalent of about 30 hours of classroom time, and it is organized into classes. Each class has a discrete learning objective and a way (or ways) to reach that objective. This will be complemented by readings that are prerequisites to each course. The course is presented in a logical order, and one class may be built upon in subsequent lessons. The order in which you perform these studies, however, is not important. If you feel you'd prefer a different order, that is up to you.

Course Content

This is the foundational course in the Strategic Studies curriculum and presents a broad overview of the subject matter. The main objective of this course is to gain familiarity with war, strategy, and the terminology that will be used throughout this degree program.

By the end of this course, you should know:

• The differences between Tactics, Grand Tactics, Strategy, and Grand Strategy
• The basics of military organization
• A majority of the specialized words used in the study of warfare and strategy
• Many of the major technical and technological innovations over the course of military history

Active participants

I will be studying this course from the notes. should anyone want to step into a mentoring role, that would be good. --Jolie 19:44, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

I will also be studying this course, among others, and am wondering if there is anyone who would want to share their expertise. Thanks --Iskid2astop 19:03, 15 February 2008

I am about to begin studying this course and I'd greatly appreciate if anyone is willing to share their expertise and resource materials. -A.T. 3rd October 2018

This appears to be very different from the Ilias system of learning. I look forward to completing studies here.

Course Texts

Collaborative Wikibook Project

The Study of Strategy

Online Texts

• Military_strategy

• Carl_von_Clausewitz
• http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/VomKriege2/ONWARTOC2.HTML

• The art of war [1]

Offline Texts

• Art, Robert J. & Waltz, Kenneth N. (Eds.), The Use of Force. Military Power and International Poitics. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004 (last edition). ISBN 0742525570
• Baylis, John, Cohen, Eliot A., Gray, Colin S., Wirtz, James J. (eds.), Strategy in the Contemporary World, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 (ISBN 0-19-878273-X) and 2006 (ISBN 978-0-19-928978-3).
• Betts, Richard K. (Ed.), Conflict After The Cold War. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2006. ISBN 0-321-20946-X
• Dawson, Doyne. The Origins of Western Warfare: Militarism and Morality in the Ancient World. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8133-2940-X
• Freedman, Lawrence. War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-19-289254-1
• Fuller, J. F. C. Armament and History: The Influence of Armament on History from the Dawn of Classical Warfare to the End of the Second World War. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998 (originally published 1945). ISBN 0-306-80859-5
• Gray, Colin S. Modern Strategy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-828030-0
• Hammond, Grant T. "The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security". Washington: Smithsonian Books, 2001. ISBN 1-56098-941-6
• Hart, B.H. Lidell Strategy, New York: Penguin Group, 1991 (originally published 1954). ISBN 0-452-01071-3
• Heuser, Beatrice. The Evolution of Strategy: Thinking War from Antiquity to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-15524-3
• Keegan, John. A History of Warfare. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. ISBN 0-679-73082-6 (London: Hutchison and Knopf editions also available, but references will be taken from the Vintage Books edition)

Classes

Unit 1: Introductions

Classes

• What Is Strategy? Why Study Strategy?
• "Policy by Other Means"
• The Fundamentals of Military Organization

Unit 2: Concepts Useful to the Study of Strategy

Classes

• Strategic Resources
• Geopolitics
• The State as Rational Actor

Unit 3: Primitive Warfare: The Clash for Resources

Classes

• Territoriality and Warfare in the Animal Kingdom
• Monkey Wars
• Tribal and Ritualized Warfare

Unit 4: The Rise of Civilization

Classes

• Cities, Agriculture, and Early Military Organization
• The Greek City States and Rome
• China

Unit 5: Early Theories of Strategy and War

Classes

• From Ritual Warfare to Battle of Annihilation
• The Greek and Roman traditions
• Chinese Military Philosophy

Unit 6: Religion, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance

Classes

• The Crusades and Religious Conflict
• Religion in the 30-Years' War
• The Beginnings of Modern Warfare

Unit 7: The Colonial Period

Classes

• Colonialism and the Balance of Power
• Re-Ritualization? Law and Positional Warfare
• Genocide

Unit 8: Nations and Citizens

Classes

• Napoleon and the Levée en Masse - The Rise of National Armies
• Guerrilla
• The State of Military Philosophy

Unit 9: The Modern Era

Classes

• Economy and the Clash of Ideologies in the Cold War
• Nuclear Strategy
• Non-State Actors

Unit 10: Schools of Strategic Thought

Classes

• Clausewitz vs. Jomini (and their respective ilks)
• Sun Tzu
• John Boyd

Course Final Project

Final - Introduction to Strategic Studies

Related lessons

• Deterrence

Online Syllabi

• Eliot Cohen, Strategy and Policy John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies(Spring 2001)
• Richard Betts War, Peace and Strategy Columbia (Fall 2000)
• Barry R. Posen, Foundations of Security Studies Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Fall 2003)
• Barry R. Posen, Comparative Grand Strategy and Military Doctrine Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Fall 2003)