The Evolution of Strategy

Part I. Introduction
1. What is strategy?
Part II. Long-Term Constants
2. Warfare and mindsets from antiquity to the middle ages
3. Warfare and mindsets in early modern Europe
4. Themes in early thinking about strategy
Part III. The Napoleonic Paradigm and Total War
5. The age and mindset of the Napoleonic paradigm
6. The Napoleonic paradigm transformed: from total mobilisation to total war
7. Challenges to the Napoleonic paradigm vs. the culmination of total war
Part IV. Naval and Maritime Strategy
8. Long-term trends and early maritime strategy
9. The age of steam to the First World War
10. The World Wars and their lessons for maritime strategists
11. Maritime strategy in the nuclear age
Part V. Air Power and Nuclear Strategy
12. War in the third dimension
13. Four schools of air power
14. Nuclear strategy
Part VI. Asymmetric or 'Small' Wars: 15. From partisan war to people's war; 16. Counterinsurgency; Part VII. The Quest for New Paradigms after the World Wars
17. Wars withoutvictories, victories without peace
18. No end of history: the dialectic continues
19. Epilogue: strategy making vs. bureaucratic politics
20. Summaries and conclusions

Beatrice Heuser is Chair of International History at the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Reading. Her widely-translated publications include Reading Clausewitz (2002) and The Bomb: Nuclear Weapons in their Historical, Strategic and Ethical Context (1999).

'This is a real masterpiece. As a history of strategic thinking, ancient and modern, it is comprehensive, learned and authoritative. Its discussion of contemporary issues is shrewd and illuminating. It is lucid, wise, often witty, and above all, deeply humane. It should be essential reading for all students and practitioners of strategy: indeed I doubt whether they will need any other for a long time to come.' Sir Michael Howard, former Regius Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford 'Beatrice Heuser has produced a book of immense and unique scholarship. The study provides the most detailed and comprehensive survey yet written on strategic thinking across the ages from Roman times to the contemporary debates about the future of warfare in the twenty-first century. It is essential reading for any serious university or military student of strategic studies or international security.' John Baylis, Emeritus Professor and formerly Pro Vice Chancellor, Swansea University 'With this work Beatrice Heuser has made a major contribution. This is much more than just a survey of strategy through the ages, but a deep, intellectual examination of the complex relationships between strategy and war through the course of history.' Williamson Murray, Professor Emeritus of History, Ohio State University 'Heuser's history of strategic theory and practice demonstrates extraordinary range, erudition, intelligence, and insight. She appears to have read everything, in many languages, about attempts to apply armed force effectively. The Evolution of Strategy will be the first port of call for those wanting to check up on the development of land strategy in the eighteenth century, maritime strategy in the nineteenth century, nuclear strategy in the twentieth century, or counterinsurgency strategy in the twenty-first century.' Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs 'Beatrice Heuser ... has written one of the most important books on strategy and war to appear in recent years.' H. R.