Essays & Reviews

Essays & Reviews

CSD publishes original content with a primary focus on long-form essays and reviews, which explore the fundamental elements that shape strategy and diplomacy—including statesmanship, the military art, geography, culture, politics, economics, and technology. We hold a catholic approach both to the topics of these essays as well as to breadth of relevant works—to include books, memoirs, essays, speeches; other documents; possibly even opera and other works of art.

SORT BY: Essay Review Blog National Security History Politics

Churchill’s Trial: Winston Churchill and the Salvation of Free Government

Patrick J. Garrity + - October 28, 2015

Churchill’s prescriptions, general and particular, were and are worthy of debate. He might not have been willing to intervene in Indochina to pull French chestnuts out of the fire, but throughout his career he arguably expected the United States to support the British cause in regions that the United States might regard as peripheral. To American commanders during World War II, he seemed obsessed with fighting on the fringes rather than at the center, and by doing so he drained resources necessary to fight at the center, which defied the ultimate principle of economy. Sometimes, as during the American Civil War, slaughter is necessary to create the conditions for maneuver. But it surely can be said that Churchill’s works deserve inclusion in a list of the Classics.

Churchill’s Trial: Winston Churchill and the Salvation of Free Government

Patrick J. Garrity + - October 28, 2015

Churchill’s prescriptions, general and particular, were and are worthy of debate. He might not have been willing to intervene in Indochina to pull French chestnuts out of the fire, but throughout his career he arguably expected the United States to support the British cause in regions that the United States might regard as peripheral. To American commanders during World War II, he seemed obsessed with fighting on the fringes rather than at the center, and by doing so he drained resources necessary to fight at the center, which defied the ultimate principle of economy. Sometimes, as during the American Civil War, slaughter is necessary to create the conditions for maneuver. But it surely can be said that Churchill’s works deserve inclusion in a list of the Classics.

Structure and Contingency: the Causes of the Peloponnesian War

Patrick J. Garrity + - September 16, 2015

The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) was “a war like no other.” It was a 27 year conflict that brought an end to the fifth century Athenian Golden Age, killed more Greeks in one year than the Persians killed in ten, and, in the end, seemed to solve nothing.

Structure and Contingency: the Causes of the Peloponnesian War

Patrick J. Garrity + - September 16, 2015

The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) was “a war like no other.” It was a 27 year conflict that brought an end to the fifth century Athenian Golden Age, killed more Greeks in one year than the Persians killed in ten, and, in the end, seemed to solve nothing.

Sources of Chinese Military Strategy

Patrick J. Garrity + - May 19, 2015

Whereas the US focuses on an “intelligence-judgment-decision” paradigm, China has a more comprehensive method of determining strategy.

Sources of Chinese Military Strategy

Patrick J. Garrity + - May 19, 2015

Whereas the US focuses on an “intelligence-judgment-decision” paradigm, China has a more comprehensive method of determining strategy.

Colin S. Gray on Thucydides and the Definition of Future Threats

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 30, 2015

Thucydides leaves us no doubt that the principal threat to the security of Athenians flowed more from the distinctly flawed working of the empire’s democratic politics, especially its proclivity to promote crowd pleasing demagogues who were short of competence, high ethical standards, or both, than from vengeful Persians or strategically pedestrian Spartans. Political ruin tends to begin and end at home. Students of international relations need to remember this plain warning from the historical record.

Colin S. Gray on Thucydides and the Definition of Future Threats

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 30, 2015

Thucydides leaves us no doubt that the principal threat to the security of Athenians flowed more from the distinctly flawed working of the empire’s democratic politics, especially its proclivity to promote crowd pleasing demagogues who were short of competence, high ethical standards, or both, than from vengeful Persians or strategically pedestrian Spartans. Political ruin tends to begin and end at home. Students of international relations need to remember this plain warning from the historical record.

Are We all Clausewitians Now? Reflections on the Work of John Keegan

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 28, 2015

“I have not been in a battle; not near one, nor heard one from afar, nor seen the aftermath.” Thus John Keegan, later Sir John, began his landmark book, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, published in 1976. Despite this bit of caution, Keegan’s book was immediately hailed as a classic; one that conveyed what the experiences of combat was like for the participants, above all the common soldier.

Are We all Clausewitians Now? Reflections on the Work of John Keegan

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 28, 2015

“I have not been in a battle; not near one, nor heard one from afar, nor seen the aftermath.” Thus John Keegan, later Sir John, began his landmark book, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, published in 1976. Despite this bit of caution, Keegan’s book was immediately hailed as a classic; one that conveyed what the experiences of combat was like for the participants, above all the common soldier.

On Sophocles’ Antigone and Modern Tyrants

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 22, 2015

Tyrants are prone to seek domination of ever-larger possessions, and the only constraint on their expansion, aside from internal strife, is effective opposition by external powers. If they are not combated, tyrants can indeed be highly disruptive of international stability.

On Sophocles’ Antigone and Modern Tyrants

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 22, 2015

Tyrants are prone to seek domination of ever-larger possessions, and the only constraint on their expansion, aside from internal strife, is effective opposition by external powers. If they are not combated, tyrants can indeed be highly disruptive of international stability.

Naval Works of Note: Herbert Richmond’s Statesmen and Sea-Power (1946)

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 21, 2015

British grand strategy has from the very outset been confronted with notably complex issues. On the one hand, there is the necessity to control of the sea, as the sine qua non of the entire system, in order to ensure against invasion, secure trade, and maintain their colonies against European rivals.

Naval Works of Note: Herbert Richmond’s Statesmen and Sea-Power (1946)

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 21, 2015

British grand strategy has from the very outset been confronted with notably complex issues. On the one hand, there is the necessity to control of the sea, as the sine qua non of the entire system, in order to ensure against invasion, secure trade, and maintain their colonies against European rivals.

Mary P. Nichols on Thucydides and the Pursuit of Freedom

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 17, 2015

Cities and individuals in Thucydides' history take freedom as their goal, whether they claim to possess it and want to maintain it or whether they desire to attain it for themselves or others. Freedom is the goal of both antagonists in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta and Athens, although in different ways. One of the fullest expressions of freedom can be seen in the rhetoric of Thucydides’ Pericles, especially in his famous funeral oration.

Mary P. Nichols on Thucydides and the Pursuit of Freedom

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 17, 2015

Cities and individuals in Thucydides' history take freedom as their goal, whether they claim to possess it and want to maintain it or whether they desire to attain it for themselves or others. Freedom is the goal of both antagonists in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta and Athens, although in different ways. One of the fullest expressions of freedom can be seen in the rhetoric of Thucydides’ Pericles, especially in his famous funeral oration.

Not your Father’s Geopolitics

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 16, 2015

Those of us of a Classical bent are occasionally jarred by references to “geopolitics” that do not seem to square with the understanding we gained from reading authorities such as Mahan, Mackinder, and Spykman. Although we felt that we were properly critical of particular aspects of these geopolitical teachings, were are reminded that in recent years, something formally called “critical geopolitics” has emerged – a postmodern understanding of space, “identity,” and politics.

Not your Father’s Geopolitics

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 16, 2015

Those of us of a Classical bent are occasionally jarred by references to “geopolitics” that do not seem to square with the understanding we gained from reading authorities such as Mahan, Mackinder, and Spykman. Although we felt that we were properly critical of particular aspects of these geopolitical teachings, were are reminded that in recent years, something formally called “critical geopolitics” has emerged – a postmodern understanding of space, “identity,” and politics.

A Contemporary Hat Tip to Makers of Modern Strategy

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 14, 2015

In "Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China," Robert Blackwill and Ashley J. Tellis argue that because the American effort to “integrate” China into the liberal international order has now generated new threats to U.S. primacy in Asia—and could result in a consequential challenge to American power globally—Washington needs a new grand strategy toward China that centers on balancing the rise of Chinese power rather than continuing to assist its ascendancy.

A Contemporary Hat Tip to Makers of Modern Strategy

Patrick J. Garrity + - April 14, 2015

In "Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China," Robert Blackwill and Ashley J. Tellis argue that because the American effort to “integrate” China into the liberal international order has now generated new threats to U.S. primacy in Asia—and could result in a consequential challenge to American power globally—Washington needs a new grand strategy toward China that centers on balancing the rise of Chinese power rather than continuing to assist its ascendancy.