War, Peace, And Victory: Strategy And Statecraft

Gray is always thought-provoking, and this book is no exception. It is a disquisition on the strategist's profession, not a recommended strategy for the United States. Its charge to strategists is complicated and demanding: for instance, to see a mosaic without making the mistake of "essentialism" or "reductionism" (i.e., strategy is essentially paradoxical; U.S. and Soviet theater forces are essentially akin) and to draw on history without reducing it to misleading analogies, such as Paul Kennedy's suggestion that America's overstretch resembles imperial Spain's.