Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
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In addition to the readings listed by week below, see the bibliography of fully cited required and recommended readings used in this course.
Readings by Class Session
| LEC # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| I. Grand Strategies: Their Origins and Their Effects | ||
| 1 | Course Overview and Introduction to Grand Strategy | Clausewitz, Carl von. "The Influence of Clausewitz." On War. Edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976, pp. 27-44. Note: All scholars of security affairs should own this book. If you do not wish to own this book, you must copy these pages and read them. ———. "War Plans." On War. Edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976, Book 8, pp. 577-637. Note: All scholars of security affairs should own this book. If you do not wish to own this book, you must copy these pages and read them. Bassford. "Clausewitz and His Works." Chapter 2 in Clausewitz in English. pp. 9-33. Liddell-Hart. Strategy. Chapter XIX, pp. 319-323. Posen. Sources of Military Doctrine. Chapter 1, pp. 13-33. |
| 2 | Material Influences on Strategy: Geographical Position, National Power and Military Technology | Geographical Position and National Power Kennedy. The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery. Chapter 7, pp. 177-202. Kennedy. "The First World War and The International Power System." pp. 7-40. Posen. Sources of Military Doctrine. Chapter 2, pp. 34-41, 59-80. Recommended Weigley. "A Strategy of Sea Power and Empire." Chapter 9 in The American Way of War. pp. 167-191. Supplements the preceding. Military Technology Howard. "Men Against Fire." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. pp. 41-57. |
| 3 | Military Organizations | Howard. War in European History. Chapter 4, pp. 54-74. Irvine. "The Origin of Capital Staffs." pp. 161-179. Posen. Sources of Military Doctrine. pp. 41-59. Vagts. History of Militarism. pp. 323-359. Travers. "Technology, Tactics, and Morale: Jean de Bloch, the Boer War and British Military Theory, 1900-1914." pp. 264-286. |
| 4 | Nationalism | Carr. "The Third Period." In Nationalism and After. pp. 17-26. Stern. "Why do People Sacrifice for Their Nations?" In Perspectives on Nationalism and War. pp. 99-121. Hayes. "Nationalism and International War," and "Nationalism and Militarism." In Essays on Nationalism. pp. 126-155, 187- 195. Paret. "Nationalism and the Sense of Military Obligation." Posen. "Nationalism, the Mass Army, and Military Power." Van Evera. "Hypotheses on Nationalism and War." pp. 5-39. Farrar, Jr. "Villain or Scapegoat? Nationalism and the Outbreak of World War I." Williamson. "The Domestic Context of Habsburg Foreign Policy." Chapter 2 in Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War . pp. 13-33. |
| 5 | The International Political System: Constraints, Incentives and Interactions | Jervis. "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma." pp. 167-214. Waltz. "Anarchic Orders and Balances of Power," and "Structural Causes & Military Effects." In Theory of International Politics. pp. 102-128, 161-193. Christensen and Snyder. "Chain Gangs and Passed Bucks." International Organization 44, no. 2 (Spring 1990): 137-168. Lynn-Jones. "Offense-Defense Theory and its Critics." Security Studies 4, no. 4 (Summer 1995): 660-691. |
| 6 | Historical Case Studies | George. Case Studies and Theory Development. pp. 43-68. Lijphart. "Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method." pp. 682-693. ———. "The Comparable Cases Strategy in Comparative Research." Levy. "Too Important To Leave to the Other." International Security 22, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 22-33. Haber, Kennedy and Krasner. "Brothers Under the Skin…" International Security 22, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 34-43. Gaddis. "History, Theory and Common Ground…" International Security (Summer 1997): 75-85. Posen. The Sources of Military Doctrine. Read the Preface, and Chapters 2 and 7, but read them after you read the methodology articles, and with an eye to how methodological problems were solved, or not. You can skim as much of the rest of the book as you wish. Paret. "The History of War and the New Military History." In Understanding War. pp. 209-226. |
| II. Origins of World War I | ||
| 7 | The Anglo-German Rivalry (Naval and Otherwise) | Crowe. "Memorandum." Kennedy. "Tirpitz, England and the Second Navy Law of 1900: A Strategical Critique." pp. 33-57. ———. Rise and Fall. Chapter 8, pp. 205-237. Turner. Origins of the First World War. pp. 1-60. Lynn-Jones. "Détente and Deterrence: Anglo-German Relations, 1911-1914." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. pp. 165-194. Geiss. German Foreign Policy, 1871-1914. pp. 75-83, 106-118, 121-127, 139-145. Williamson. "Joffre Reshapes French Strategy." pp. 133-154. Copeland. "German Security and the Preparation for World War I." Chapter 3 in The Origins of Major War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell, 2000, pp. 56-78. Recommended Rich. Hitler's War Aims. pp. XIX-XXX. (useful historical background) |
| 8 | Grand Strategy and Military Doctrine Among the Pre-WWI Land Powers | Stevenson. "Militarization and Diplomacy in Europe before 1914." International Security 22, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 125-161. Sagan. "1914 Revisited: Allies, Offense, and Instability." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. pp. 109-133. Ritter. "The Breach of Neutrality." In The Schlieffen Plan. pp. 3-10, 78-96. Snyder. The Ideology of the Offensive. (entire) |
| 9 | The July Crisis, Military Strategy and the Outbreak of the War | Trachtenberg. "The Meaning of Mobilization in 1914." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. pp. 195-226. Van Evera. "The Cult of the Offensive." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. pp. 59-109. Turner. Origins. pp. 60-115. Turner. "The Russian Mobilization in 1914." pp. 252-268. Herrmann. The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War. Chapter 7, pp. 199-224. Fuller. "The Battles of the Marne and Tannenberg, 1914." In A Military History of the Western World . pp. 182-228. The maps at this site will make the initial plans and the first battles much easier to understand. Recommended Levy. "Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in July 1914." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. pp. 226-262. |
| 10 | The Course and Conduct of WWI | Lupfer. "The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War." (entire) The original source is: Steiner. Britain and the Origins of the First World War. |
| III. Origins of World War II | ||
| 11 | British and German Grand Strategy in the 1930s | Weinberg. "From One War to Another." In A World At Arms. pp. 6-47. May. Strange Victory. Chapter 7, pp. 94-110. Kennedy. Rise and Fall. Chapter 10, pp. 267-298. Posen. Sources of Military Doctrine. Chapters 5, and 6. Schweller. "An Assessment of the International Distribution of Power (circa 1938-1940)." Deadly Imbalances. pp. 203-208. (Appendix) Recommended Howard. War in European History. Chapter 7, pp. 116-135. |
| 12 | French Grand Strategy | May. Strange Victory. Chapters 8, 9, 10 (pp. 113-153), Chapters 19-21 (pp. 271-322). Posen. "Still Strange Defeat." Draft Young, Robert. In Command of France. pp. 1-33. Posen. Sources of Military Doctrine. Chapter 4. |
| 13 | Military Doctrine, Land Warfare, and the Crises of the Late 1930s | Mearsheimer, John. Conventional Deterrence. (All but the Chapter on the Nato-Pact competition.) Herwig, Holger. "Clio Deceived." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. pp. 262-301. May. Strange Victory. Chapters 11, 12, pp. 153-212. Posen. "Competing Images of the Soviet Union." Overy and Wheatcroft. "The Soviet Union." Chapter 5 in The Road To War . pp. 210-257. |
| 14 | The Opening Battles of the War | Review Posen. Sources of Military Doctrine. pp. 81-104. Read May. Strange Victory. Chapters 15, 16, 17, 18 (pp. 215-268), Chapters 24 through to the conclusion (pp. 347-464). |
Clausewitz, Carl von. "The Influence of Clausewitz," and "War Plans." In On War, edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976. ISBN: 9780691056579.
Howard, Michael. War in European History. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Incorporated 2001. ISBN: 9780192802088.
Bassford, Christopher. Clausewitz in English. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780195083835.
Liddell-Hart, Basil H. Strategy. New York, NY: Plume, Incorporated, 1991. ISBN: 9780452010710.
Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery. Amherst, New York, NY: Humanity Books, Publishers, 1986. ISBN: 9781573922784.
Kennedy, Paul M. "The First World War and the International Power System." International Security 9, no. 1 (Summer 1984): 7-40.
Irvine, Dallas. "The Origin of Capital Staffs." Journal of Modern History 10 (June 1938): 161-79.
Travers, T. H. E. "Technology, Tactics, and Morale: Jean de Bloch, the Boer War and British Military Theory, 1900-1914." Journal of Modern History 51 (June 1979): 264-86.
Carr, Edward Hallett. "The Third Period." In Nationalism and After. London, UK: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1945, pp. 17-26.
Stern, Paul C. "Why Do People Sacrifice for Their Nations?" In Perspectives on Nationalism and War, edited by John L. Comaroff and Paul C. Stern, 99-121. New York, NY: Routledge, 1995. ISBN: 9782884491662.
Hayes, C. J. H. "Nationalism and International War," and "Nationalism and Militarism." In Essays on Nationalism. New York, NY: Russell & Russell, 1966, pp. 126-55, 187-95.
Paret, Peter. "Nationalism and the Sense of Military Obligation." Military Affairs 34, no. 1 (February 1970): 2-6.
Posen, Barry R. "Nationalism, the Mass Army, and Military Power." International Security 18, no. 2 (Fall 1993): 80-129.
Van Evera, Steven. "Hypotheses on Nationalism and War." International Security 18, no. 4 (Spring 1994): 5-39.
Farrar, L. L., Jr. "Villain of the Peace: Nationalism and the Causes of World War I." Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism 22, no. 1-2 (1995): 53-66.
Williamson, Samuel. "The Domestic Context of Habsburg Foreign Policy." Chapter 2 in Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War. London, UK: Macmillan, 1991, pp. 13-33. ISBN: 0333420810.
Jervis, Robert. "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma." World Politics 30, no. 2 (January 1978): 167-214.
Waltz, Kenneth Neal. "Anarchic Orders and Balances of Power," and "Structural Causes & Military Effects." In Theory of International Politics. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1979, pp. 102-28, 161-93. ISBN: 9780075548522.
Christensen, Thomas, and Jack Snyder. "Chain Gangs and Passed Bucks." International Organization 44, no. 2 (Spring 1990): 137-168.
Lynn-Jones, Sean M. "Offense-Defense Theory and its Critics." Security Studies 4, no. 4 (Summer 1995): 660-691.
George, Alexander. "Case Studies and Theory Development: The Method of Structured, Focused Comparison." In Diplomacy: New Approaches in History, Theory and Policy, edited by Paul Gordon Lauren, 43-68. New York, NY: Free Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780029180709.
Lijphart, Arend. "Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method." American Political Science Review 64 (1971): 682-93.
———. "The Comparable Cases Strategy in Comparative Research." Comparative Political Studies 8, no. 2 (1975): 158-77.
Levy, Jack. "Too Important To Leave to the Other." International Security 22, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 22-33.
Haber, Stephen, David M. Kennedy, and Stephen D. Krasner. "Brothers Under the Skin: Diplomatic History and International Relations." International Security 22, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 34-43.
Gaddis, John Lewis. "History, Theory and Common Ground…" International Security (Summer 1997): 75-85.
Paret, Peter. "The History of War and the New Military History." In Understanding War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993, pp. 209-226. ISBN: 9780691000909.
Crowe, Eyre. "Memorandum on the Present State of British Relations with France and Germany," January 1, 1907. In British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914, vol. III: The Testing of the Entente, 1904-6, edited by G. P. Gooch and Harold Temperley. London, UK: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1928.
Kennedy, Paul. "Tirpitz, England and the Second Navy Law of 1900: A Strategical Critique." Militargeschichtliche Mitteilungen 2 (1970): 33-57.
Turner, L. C. F. Origins of the First World War. New York, NY: W. W. Norton and Company, Incorporated, 1970. ISBN: 9780393099478.
Lynn-Jones, Sean. "Detante and Deterrence: Anglo-German Relations, 1911-1914." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War: An International Security Reader, edited by Steven E. Miller, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen Van Evera, 165-94. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780691023496.
Geiss, Imanuel. German Foreign Policy, 1871-1914. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976, pp. 75-83, 106-18, 121-27, 139-45. ISBN: 9780710083036.
Williamson, Samuel R. "Joffre Reshapes French Strategy, 1911-1913." In The War Plans of the Great Powers 1880-1914, edited by Paul M. Kennedy, 133-54. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1979. ISBN: 9780049400566.
Copeland, Dale C. "German Security and the Preparation for World War I." Chapter 3 in The Origins of Major War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000, pp. 56-78.
Stevenson, David. "Militarization and Diplomacy in Europe before 1914." International Security 22, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 125-161.
Sagan, Scott. "1914 Revisited: Allies, Offense, and Instability." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War: An International Security Reader, edited by Steven E. Miller, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen Van Evera, 109-33. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780691023496.
Ritter, Gerhard. "The Breach of Neutrality." In The Schlieffen Plan. New York, NY: Praeger, 1958, pp. 3-10, 78-96.
Snyder, Jack. The Ideology of the Offensive. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780801482441.
Trachtenberg, Marc. "The Meaning of Mobilization in 1914." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War: An International Security Reader, edited by Steven E. Miller, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen Van Evera, 196-226. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780691023496.
Van Evera, Steven. "The Cult of the Offensive." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War: An International Security Reader, edited by Steven E. Miller, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen Van Evera, 59-109. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780691023496.
Turner, L. C. F. "The Russian Mobilization in 1914." Journal of Contemporary History 3, no. 1 (January 1968): 252-68.
Hermann, David. The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996, pp. 199-224. ISBN: 9780691033747.
Fuller, J. F. C. "The Battles of the Marne and Tannenberg, 1914." In A Military History of the Western World. New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 1956, pp. 182-228.
Lupfer, Timothy. "The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War." Leavenworth Paper, no. 4 (July 1981): 69.
Keegan, John. "The Somme." In The Face of Battle. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1983 (reprint edition), pp. 204-84. ISBN: 9780140048971.
Weinberg, Gerhard L. "From One War to Another." In A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 6-47. ISBN: 9780521443173.
Schweller, Randall L. "An Assessment of the International Distribution of Power (circa 1938-1940)." In Deadly Imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's Strategy of World Conquest. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1998, pp. 203-208 (Appendix). ISBN: 9780231110730.
Young, Robert. In Command of France: French Foreign Policy and Military Planning, 1933-1940. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978, pp. 1-33. ISBN: 9780674445369.
Posen, Barry R. The Sources of Military Doctrine. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780801494277.
Mearsheimer, John J. Conventional Deterrence. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780801415692.
Herwig, Holger. "Clio Deceived." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War: An International Security Reader, edited by Steven E. Miller, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen Van Evera, 262-301. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780691023496.
Posen, Barry R. "Competing Images of the Soviet Union." World Politics 39, no. 4 (July 1987): 579-97.
May, Ernest R. Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2000. ISBN: 9780809089062.
Overy, R. J., and Andrew Wheatcroft. "The Soviet Union." Chapter 5 in The Road To War. Revised and updated edition. London, UK: Penguin, 2000, pp. 210-257. ISBN: 9780140285307.
The following books are recommended as sources for substantive or theoretical enrichment; I do not ask you to buy them but you should know of their existence.
Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York, NY: Vintage Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780679720195.
Mearsheimer, John J. Liddell Hart and the Weight of History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780801420894.
McNeill, William H. The Pursuit of Power. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780226561585.
Rich, Norman. Hitler's War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1973, pp. xix-xxx. ISBN: 9780393054545.
Levy, J. "Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in July 1914." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War: An International Security Reader, edited by Steven E. Miller, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen Van Evera, 226-62. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780691023496.
May, Ernest R. "The U-Boat Campaign." In The Use of Force: International Politics and Foreign Policy, edited by Robert J. Art and Kenneth Neal Waltz, 298-315. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1971.
Steiner, Zara. Britain and the Origins of the First World War. London, UK: Macmillan, 1977. ISBN: 9780333154274.
Berghahn, V. R. Germany and the Approach of War in 1914. London, UK: Macmillan, 1973. ISBN: 9780333106969.
Keiger, John F. V. France and the Origins of the First World War. London, UK: Macmillan, 1983. ISBN: 9780333285527.
Lieven, D. C. B. Russia and the Origins of the First World War. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780312696115.
Williamson, Samuel. Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War. London, UK: Macmillan, 1991. ISBN: 0333420810.
Shanafelt, Gary. The Secret Enemy: Austria-Hungary and the German Alliance, 1914-1918. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780880330800.
Ropp, Theodore. War in the Modern World. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780801864452.
Snyder, Jack. Myths of Empire. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780801497643.
Weigley, Russell. The American Way of War. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780253280299.