Grand Strategy

1485 Words6 Pages

Grand strategy is a human affair, conducted by men to govern human activities. It shares this attribute with many other disciplines, particularly with politics and diplomacy. Minimal notions in the human sciences are therefore necessary to apprehend it. So before dwelling deep in the study of grand strategy, a reminder about social organizations and an examination of domestic and international politics, diplomacy and their relationship will allow for a better understanding of the subject at hand. More importantly, it will account for the author’s worldview, as well as for his misconceptions, errors, and biases. Such are the objectives of this first chapter. One can trace treatises on politics and diplomacy as early as antiquity and to …show more content…

While states are still the most influential, supranational organization, non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations are also influential. The United Nations, the European Union, NATO, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Red Cross, Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon are but a few examples. The weight of such organizations and states are incommensurate compared to that of individuals, who can barely have a say, even less an impact, on world politics. Kenneth N. Waltz, who still is, despite his death in 2013, one of the most revered contemporary political scientists, explained that the “international-political systems […] are formed by coaction of self-regarding units.” This brief proposition underlined that the room available to individuals in the international arena is narrow at best, if not at all …show more content…

International relations is broader and encompasses international politics. International relations also includes other aspects of human activities, such as economics, diplomacy, movement of people, cultural exchanges, et cetera. A reason that is likely to confuse people is that political leaders exert their authority in domestics and international politics by promulgating policies whose domains can be economics, diplomacy, movement of people, cultural exchange, and even domestic and international politics. To what people can acquiesce are the only limits to the spectrum of

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