The Cambridge History of Strategy: Volume 2, From the Napoleonic Wars to the Present

Showcasing a diverse set of case studies, Volume II focuses on the practice of strategy from 1800 to the present day.

Isabelle Duyvesteyn (Edited by), Beatrice Heuser (Edited by)

9781108479929, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 January 2025

608 pages
23.6 x 16.2 x 3.5 cm, 1.1 kg

'An effective and important contribution … useful for students, military and professionals alike …' James W. E. Smith, The Naval Review

Volume II of The Cambridge History of Strategy focuses on the practice of strategy from 1800 to the present day. A team of eminent scholars examine how leaders of states, empires and non-state groups (such as guerrilla forces, rebel groups and terrorists) have attempted to practise strategy in the modern period. With a focus on the actual 'doing' of strategy, the volume aims to understand real-world experiences when ideas about conflict are carried out against a responding and proactive opponent. The case studies and material presented in the volume form an invitation to rethink dominant perspectives in the field of strategic studies. As the case studies demonstrate, strategy is most often not a stylised, premeditated and wilful phenomenon. Rather, it is a product of circumstance and opportunity, both structural and agential, leading to a view of strategy as an ad hoc, if not chaotic, enterprise.

Introduction to Volume II: The practice of strategy Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Beatrice Heuser
1. The strategies of the Napoleonic Wars Alan Forrest
2. Guerrilla and nineteenth-century strategies of insurgency Ian Beckett
3. Russia, 1870–1917 Andrey Pavlov
4. The American Civil War Donald Stoker
5. The use of naval power Andrew Lambert
6. The Russo–Japanese War Rotem Kowner
7. Chinese strategy 1926-1949 Christopher Yung
8. First World War Robert Foley
9. Soviet strategy, 1917–1945 Nikita Lomagin
10. Air power Frans Osinga
11. The Second World War in Europe Guillaume Piketty
12. The Second World War in the Asia–Pacific David Horner
13. Soviet strategy, 1945–1989 Laurien Crump
14. People's war and wars of decolonisation Mathilde von Bülow
15. Nuclear strategies Jeffrey H. Michaels
16. America's way of war Antulio J. Echevarria II
17. The Korean War Xiaobing Li
18. Israel's wars Eitan Shamir and Eado Hecht
19. The India–Pakistan confrontations Sumit Ganguly
20. The Yugoslav War, 1991–1999 James Gow
21. Terrorism and insurgency Colin P. Clarke
22. The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan Jan Angstrom
23. The three Gulf wars and Iraq Ahmed S. Hashim
24. China's wars, 1950–2021 Christopher Yung
Conclusion Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Samuel Zilincik.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]