Successful Strategies is a fascinating new study of the key factors that have contributed to the development and execution of successful strategies throughout history. With a team of leading historians, Williamson Murray and Richard Hart Sinnreich examine how, and to what effect states, individuals and military organizations have found a solution to complex and seemingly insoluble strategic problems to reach success. Bringing together grand, political and military strategy, the book features thirteen essays which each explores a unique case or aspect of strategy. The focus ranges from individuals such as Themistocles, Bismarck and Roosevelt to organizations and bureaucratic responses. Whether discussing grand strategy in peacetime or that of war or politics, these case studies are unified by their common goal of identifying in each case the key factors that contributed to success as well as providing insights essential to any understanding of the strategic challenges of the future.

Introduction Williamson Murray; 1. The strategic thought of Themistocles Victor Davis Hanson; 2. The grand strategy of the Roman Empire James Lacey; 3. Giraldus Cembrensis, Edward I, and the conquest of Wales Clifford J. Rogers; 4. Creating the British way of war: English strategy in the War of the Spanish Succession Jamel Otswald; 5. Failed, broken, or galvanized? Prussia and 1806 Dennis Showalter; 6. Victory by trial and error: Britain's struggle against Napoleon Richard Hart Sinnreich; 7. The strategy of Lincoln and Grant Wayne Hsieh; 8. Bismarckian strategic policy, 1871?90 Marcus Jones; 9. Dowding and the British strategy of air defense, 1936?40 Colin Gray; 10. US naval strategy and Japan Williamson Murray; 11. US grand strategy in World War II Peter R. Mansoor; 12. American grand strategy and the unfolding of the Cold War, 1945?61 Bradford A. Lee; 13. The Reagan Administration's strategy toward the Soviet Union Thomas G. Mahnken; Afterword Richard Hart Sinnreich.