4.0

Average Course Rating

This course is an introduction to strategic studies, which deals with the preparation and use of military power to serve the ends of politics. Although the treatment is topical, two themes run throughout: (1) the nature of war based largely, but not exclusively, on Carl von Clausewitz's On War and (2) the evolution of warfare from the late nineteenth century to the present. There are no prerequisites for this course; nevertheless, students will require a basic grasp of 20th and 21st century history. The course is divided into three main parts: an introductory discussion of strategic theory focused on Clausewitz and alternatives to his theory of war; an examination of the paradigmatic form of mass warfare that emerged in the nineteenth through the mid- twentieth century; and, an examination of challenges that have emerged to that paradigm since World War II. The course is taught through a combination of lecture and discussion. By the course’s conclusion, students will have a fulsome understanding of the theory and history of strategic studies, and will be equipped to apply that knowledge to the major dilemmas animating international security affairs today.