Dr William James has written a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2021), which was edited by Professor Thierry Balzacq and Professor Ronald R. Krebs.

Will’s chapter is titled ‘Grand Strategy and the Challenge of Change’ and can be accessed here.

Grand Strategy is a state’s “theory of victory,” explaining how the state will utilise its diverse means to advance and achieve national ends. A clearly articulated, well-defined, and relatively stable grand strategy is supposed to allow the ship of state to steer a steady course through the roiling seas of global politics. However, the obstacles to formulating and implementing grand strategy are, by all accounts, imposing. The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy addresses the conceptual and historical foundations, production, evolution, and future of grand strategy from a wide range of standpoints. It seven constituent sections present and critically examine the history of grand strategy, including beyond the West; six distinct theoretical approaches to the subject; the sources of grand strategy, ranging from geography and technology to domestic politics to individual psychology and culture; the instruments of grand strategy’s implementation, from military to economic to covert action; political actors’, including non-state actors’, grand strategic choices; the debatable merits of grand strategy, relative to alternatives; and the future of grand strategy, in light of challenges ranging from political polarisation to technological change to ageing populations. The result is a field-defining, interdisciplinary, and comparative text that will be a key resource for years to come.

The book is available online here and can be purchased here.