Understanding Grand Strategy

Grand strategy is a framework used to analyze how nations plan and execute their international relations to achieve overall objectives. It is defined as an approach within security studies, nested within international relations and political science disciplines. Historically, the concept has been associated with conservative perspectives, especially evident in programs like those at Yale, which were influenced by figures like John Lewis Gaddis and Paul Kennedy. This creates a bias within the discourse, as many grand strategies tend to prioritize military solutions over other approaches, which narrows the understanding of statecraft.