Week 1 Lecture- Strategy, Grand Strategy, and Foreign Policy Doctrine

Vocabulary flashcards on key terms from a lecture on strategy, grand strategy, and US foreign policy doctrines.

Core Tools of Strategy

1) The Ends- Your goal

2) Way- Path you get that (logistics, military plan)

3) Means- Resources you deploy

Strategy traditional definition (Foucault’s work ‘Power’)

Traditionally is a means to achieve a certain goal

Grand Strategy vs Strategy

• Grand strategy associated with states

• Grand strategy seen as the preserve of great powers

• Occurs in an environment characterised by both rivalry and partnership and can be about both confrontation and cooperation

Grand Strategy definition (Sven Biscop, 2021, p.3)

Concerns the vital ends a state has to achieve to assure the survival of its chosen way of life, mobilising all instruments and resources at its disposal.

Elements of Sven Biscop’s (2021) definition of Grand Strategy

• Is about bring all the levers together

• Definition is a bit grandiose as it implies the state is struggling and in peril

• Not always an existential issue but can be about competition

• Grand Strategy has grand objectives and about bringing together the political leaders together as a whole to pursue certain objectives

Paul M. Kennedy (1992) definition of Grand Strategy ( Grand Strategy in War and Peace, p.5)

“The crux of grand strategy lies therefore in policy, that is, in the capacity fo the nation’s leaders to bring together all of the elements, both military and nonmilitary, for the nation’s long term… best interests”

Breakdown of Paul M. Kennedy (1992) definition of Grand Strategy ( Grand Strategy in War and Peace, p.5)

• Grand as also high stakes as if its strategy fails can lead the state to suffer

• If strategy had failed in Cold War a side could lose- Conentious but US policy of containment won in the end

• Is about global competition

US Grand Strategies in Practice has 2 columns (Hal Brands, 2012)

1) Intellectual Architecture- Main concepts that drive the grand strategy

2) From this intellectual calculus flows policy- from ideas a lot of policies follow which correspond to those ideas of intellectual grand strategy

US Grand Strategies Intellectual Architecture (Hal Brands, 2012)

1) Primacy

2) Exceptionalism

3) (Liberal International) Order

4) Values

Primacy- US Intellectual Architecture (Hal Brands, 2012)

• US is worlds principal power- is a question of a fact whilst many in US question it as right

• US view it due to its principles it is a right for US to exercise its power in the world

• American primacy is core- no president would be elected if they disallow US primacy even in periods of restraint

Exceptionalism- US Intellectual Architecture (Hal Brands, 2012)

• US as a exceptional power

• Trump joking that US exceptional but so is everyone else

  • Trump as a maverick in some categories

• US regarding itself as different and better than everyone else (and thus has the right to annex Canada, Panama and Greenland)

• From this you also get the idea of US being the essential power where without US nothing gets done in the world

  • E.g. Ukrainian War, despite geographic difference US being the barrier 

  • That is due to the fact that this has been the role of the US since Second World War

(Liberal International) Order- US Intellectual Architecture (Hal Brands, 2012)

• Idea that US is upholder of Liberal Order

• Is more complicated than you would this as US has acted in constrain to Liberal World Order with US intervention in certain states

• US role in institutions like World Bank and IMF

Values- US Intellectual Architecture (Hal Brands, 2012)

• ‘Freedom’

  • Not clear what this constitutes

From this intellectual calculus flows policy: Examples

• Containment and neo-containment

• Détente and partnership

• Isolationism vs. engagement

• Forward deployment vs. offshore balancing?

• Unilateralism or multilateralism?

National Security Strategy

A formal document published by the US president, outlining the credible focus of the US and its strategic priorities.

Foreign Policy Doctrine

An extension or example of strategy, often associated with a specific president and their administration's priorities.

The Monroe Doctrine

US doctrine defining spheres of influence.

(Has been taken to its aggregated state with Trump with Canada, and Greenland)

The Truman Doctrine

US doctrine focused on the 'Containment' of communism.

• Deal of containment with Korean War to stop spread spread of communism, Vietnam, Laos as well as formation of NATO (NATO quite 

• Approach towards China and Indo-Pacific with QUAD arrangement and arrangement with UK and Australia)

The Reagan Doctrine

US doctrine focused on the 'Rollback' of communism, particularly in Africa, Latin America, and Afghanistan.

• Reagan sought to rollback communism not in its heartlands but in Africa, Latin America and Afghanistan where Soviet Union And Cuba had established fraternal regimes (Mozambique, Angola etc and funding Mujahideen in Afghanistan)

Grand Strategy + Presidential Doctrine

• This is not from day to day decision making but loosely joining up of tools of strategy

• Grand Strategy at the top and underneath is tools of initiatives of the doctrine that seek to take grand strategy forward

The Bush (41) Doctrine

US doctrine advocating for a 'new world order' characterized by cooperation and security.

• The end of the Cold War and the only superpower left and gave the rise of ‘End of History’ that facism and communism had been defeated in 20th century and liberalism won and there was no obvious challenging it and as history is a battle of ideas, history has ended

• US would go out and do good- e.g. Gulf War 1

  • Somalia where US had short intervention and pulled out very quickly

• US saw itself as exceptional and essential

The Clinton Doctrine

US doctrine supporting intervention and enlargement of the community of democracies.

• Very optimistic sunny individual

• Very mainstream in the idea that US was a global essential and exceptional power

• Chian not a rival and Russia was a power on its knees

• Civil War in some Balkan region and had some resistance and didn’t always get its way but didn’t have a major competitor

• Interventions to extend liberal order and markets and ‘enlargement of community for democracy’ with supporting enlargement of EU and gaining members of NATO

• Intervened in Bosnia and Kosovo with mixed success but more positive then negative as these wars ended and settlement was reached

  • Idea that US could extend itself as a military power

The Bush (43) Doctrine

US doctrine characterized by unilateralism, pre-emptive interventionism, and the 'war on terror'.

• His two term presidency is defined by 9/11

• Bus doctrine was very different from Clintin and his father 

• His signature was unilateralism- US will do what it must to defend its interests

• If international organizations got in its way it would override

  • Why invasion of Iraq despite no UNSC resolution

• Justified as the legitimate response of 9/11 where there was black sites of tortue in Africa and middle East

  • Not legal though

• War on Terror

• Was unilateral as if partners went with it great but if other states don’t wanna join then too bad and the US will go ahead with it

  • Precedent this sets with Trump later on

The Obama Doctrine

US doctrine focused on prudence, restraint, and a pivot to Asia, with a view that the US was overstretched.

• ‘leading from behind’

• 2 term president

• Sees pivot of China

• Sees the limit for US power- which not seen before

• View that US was overstretched and had gotten in Iraq and Afghanistan and was overcommitted and had to overdraw and left it ot others to maintain other interventions with ‘leading from behind’

• Don’t get involved in new wars and don’t make bad decisions that will overcommit the US

The Trump Doctrine (1)

US doctrine centered on 'Make America Great Again' through 'principled realism' and prioritizing American interests.

• Argued that all others had diminished US influence

  • Including Republicans

• Trump was not an interventionists in the first term and authorised missiles against ISIS and Syria but was clearly a unilateralists hence imposition of Tariffs against China and Canada

  •  Us withdrew from WHO and Paris Agreement

The Biden Doctrine

US doctrine emphasizing great-power competition, ending 'forever wars', a return to multilateralism, and an industrial strategy to undergird American

• Great-power competition

• Ending ‘forever wars’ (a humility on what military intervention can achieve)

• A return to multilateralism

• An industrial strategy to undergird American power

Undid lots of Trump and about multilateralism

• A lot about multilateralism

• Sought to restore US reputation

• Under Biden for withdrawing from Afghanistan (and ciristsed fro leaving the country against Taliban)

• Also mindful about US being overextended

  • Long-term trend

• Ending ‘forever wars’ and a degree of restraint power.

What Use is Strategy- (Richard Betts, 2000 ‘Is Strategy an Illusion?’)

• ‘Because strategy is necessary [...] does not mean that strategy is possible.’

• Luck matters more than genius

• ‘The record of strategies played out reveals so little correspondence between plans and outcomes that strategic choice proves to be seldom more than a shot in the dark.’

6 Elements for What is the USe of Strategy

1. Results usually do not follow the intended outcome (Betts, 2000)

2. Strategy requires rational foresight or timely adjustment – but the formulation of strategy is polluted by human bias, cultural blinders and ideological preference

3. Strategy is dependent upon implementation through organizational structures that can be inefficient, inflexible and resistant to change. (Bacevich and Menon, 2019)

4. . The ‘disharmony’ between strategy and politics’ (Colin Grey, 2016; Strachan, 2019)

5. Strategies can be overly ambitious, thus failing to set priorities, not matching means to ends, and tending toward an inflation of threats (Friedman, 2023)

6. A strategy may be influenced by bad ideas – it achieves short-term ends, but is damaging to long-term interests (Carpenter, 2021; Powell, 2021)

What Use is Strategy- 1) Results usually do not follow the intended outcome (Betts, 2000)

• The strategy is simply unachievable and even misguided in its level of ambition

• It is deflected by unforeseen circumstances

• It is resisted by others (even a good strategy may fail)

• Often the reality of implementation is strategy failing or going wrong or an inability to implement it

  • Can have a good strategy but result often doesn’t follow the outcome- too ambitious, misguided or interrupted by events (e.g. Bush with 9/11 which completely changed nature of US foreign policy)

What Use is Strategy- 2) Strategy requires rational foresight or timely adjustment – but the formulation of strategy is polluted by human bias, cultural blinders and ideological preference

• Usually assumed that strategy requires a degree of rational thinking, (setting objectives, deploying resources etc)

• Rationality however is a contested concept and even if you can define it clearly often leaders are irrational and may take action completely countering rational and logical decisions at the time

  • Attribution bias

  • The other mind’s problem

  • Hubris, ego, human frailty

What Use is Strategy- 3) Strategy is dependent upon implementation through organisational structures that can be inefficient, inflexible and resistant to change (Bacevich and Menon, 2019. ‘The President and the Blob’

• Problems of groupthink, habit (the ‘blob’) path dependency, the sunk cost fallacy

• A wonderful clearly strategy may be drawn up but amount to nothing as the President finds obstruction from Congress of big bureaucracies and become victim to ‘group think’

• Trump may confront the groupthink of bureaucracy- this was his narrative from hsi first term with the blob in Washington

• The bureaucracies in most states is very entrenched and has grooves to how things should be done

What Use is Strategy- 4) The ‘disharmony’ between strategy and politics’ (Colin Grey, 2016; Strachan, 2019, ‘Strategy in theory; strategy in practice)

• Difference in trying to implement it

• Cooperation between party or other actors whose cooperation you need

  • E.g. NATO allies may not always play ball

• At the domestic level (contested priorities) (Strachan, 2019)

• At the international level (strategising with allies) (Strachan, 2019)

What Use is Strategy- 5) Strategies can be overly ambitious, thus failing to set priorities, not matching means to ends, and tending toward an inflation of threats (Friedman, 2023, ‘Bad Idea: National Security Strategy Documents’)

• Any strategies that have big claims e..g solving climate change in last 10 years we should be sceptical- may ve virtuous

• Anything with zero in we should be sceptical over- e.g. 0 or net-zero

• End goal not necessarily wrong it may be virtuously correct but is likely to fail

What Use is Strategy- 6) A strategy may be influenced by bad ideas – it achieves short-term ends, but is damaging to long-term interests (Carpenter, 2021 ‘When U.S. Foreign Policy Went Wrong’; Powell, 2021 ‘How the war on terror led to the forever wars’)

• Can have strategies that imply genocide which may states have undertaken

• A strategy or manifesto can be lucid or persuasive to some but can be a very bad idea

• Stephen Waltz has argued that successive US presidents have ignored opinions of their allies in using unilateralism and this is a bad strategy

The Need for Strategy

• To pursue strategy is to embrace choice; to proceed from conviction and to reject the fatalist or defeatist idea that outcomes are a consequence of luck, fate or subjugation to the will of others.

• But good strategy should be aware of its limitations – bounded by an appreciation of the possible.

• It starts ‘with an existing state of affairs and only gains meaning by an awareness of how, for better, or worse, it could be different.’

• Strategy is about moving to the ‘next stage’ and not the achievement of some ‘definitive and permanent conclusion.’

Summary of Why We Need Strategy

Strategy is a necessity for setting of gaols as in its absence things are far far worse as tehre is no clear conception of the problems one face and how to face it