{"product_id":"the-logic-of-grand-strategy-ends-means-and-the-long-game-of-nations-military-science-by-dr-cornelis-van-houte","title":"The Logic of Grand Strategy: Ends, Means, and the Long Game of Nations (Military Science) by Dr. Cornelis van Houte","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhy do the strongest powers so often destroy themselves? Athens at the height of its empire. Spain awash in the silver of the New World. Germany, twice in a single century. The Soviet Union at the peak of its military might. Again and again, the states best placed to endure have been undone not by their rivals, but by their own overreach. The Logic of Grand Strategy is a sweeping, clear-eyed guide to the oldest and highest art of statecraft: the disciplined alignment of a nation's ends with its means over the long run. Across twenty chapters it builds one powerful argument, that the recurring failure of great powers is overreach and the recurring virtue is the discipline of limits, and tests it against three thousand years of history. Unlike most books on strategy, it takes no national side. It weighs Athens and Sparta, Rome, Britain, Germany, America, the Soviet Union, and China on the same scale, and judges every strategy by a single standard: did it match its ends to its means? It draws as readily on Sun Tzu and the Chinese tradition, and on Svechin and the Russian and Soviet school, as on Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Clausewitz. Inside you will find: • The foundations: ends, ways, and means; the levels of war; the primacy of politics • The great traditions of strategic thought, East and West • The true sources of power: geography, economics, technology, and alliances • The three pathologies that wreck strategies: overreach, drift, and hubris • Grand strategy in history, from Rome and the European balance to the rise of Asia • How strategy is really made, and how to judge it in a new multipolar age Rich with illustrative cases, common pitfalls, review questions, and a full reference apparatus, including a glossary, biographical notes, a chronology, an annotated reading list, and worked answers to every review question, this is at once a rigorous introduction and a lasting reference. For students of strategy, history, and international affairs; for practitioners and policymakers; and for any reader who wants to understand the forces that decide the fate of nations. The world is returning to an age of great powers. The discipline of limits has never mattered more. Read more\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Independently published","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48132896882873,"sku":"8181227040","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0793\/7871\/0713\/files\/9798181227040-right-three-quarter.jpg?v=1784949365","url":"https:\/\/www.bestbuybook.com\/products\/the-logic-of-grand-strategy-ends-means-and-the-long-game-of-nations-military-science-by-dr-cornelis-van-houte","provider":"BestBuyBook","version":"1.0","type":"link"}