Abstract

Strategy – or grand strategy – is the task of setting out the principles and plans that underpin foreign policy over the long-term. Strategy provides an assessment of the international environment and describes how a state cultivates and mobilises which aspects of its power in pursuit of its goals. This chapter introduces strategic assessment and grand strategy – both in their public and classified forms – as crucial elements of effective statecraft. It considers the conceptual challenges involved in making aggregate measurements of power, and states’ practice of making assessments of the strategic environment they face and preparing and issuing national security documents. It highlights questions of self-identity in constructing national interests and identifying threats to them, and reflects on the most appropriate ways and means of conducting their foreign policy as a result. It concludes by emphasising the importance of long-term strategic thinking as a prerequisite for effective foreign policy.