This chapter examines the limitations and problems of strategic studies with respect to security challenges in the global South. It first considers the ethnocentrism that bedevils strategic studies and international relations before discussing mainstream strategic studies during the cold war. It then looks at whether strategic studies has kept up with the changing pattern of conflict, where the main theatre is the non-Western world, with particular emphasis on the decline in armed conflicts after the end of the cold war, along with the problem of human security and how it has been impacted by technology. The chapter also explores the issue of whether to take into account non-military threats in strategic studies and the debates over strategic culture and grand strategy in China and India. It concludes by proposing Global International Relations as a new approach to strategic studies that seeks to adapt to the strategic challenges and responses of non-Western countries.
Chapter
19. Strategic Studies
The West and the Rest
Amitav Acharya and Jiajie He
Book
Edited by John Baylis, James J. Wirtz, and Jeannie L. Johnson
Strategy in the Contemporary World provides a critical overview of both enduring and contemporary issues that dominate strategy. This text explores key debates and alternative perspectives, considers ongoing controversies and presents opposing arguments, helping readers to build critical thinking skills by assessing the evidence and logic behind various positions. The new edition has been updated to incorporate the latest developments in the field of strategic studies. A new chapter on ‘Chinese Grand Strategy’ examines the evolution of Chinese grand strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, its drivers, and its implications. A fully revised chapter on ‘Strategic Culture’ explores the concept of strategic culture as a framework of analysis used by scholars and policymakers to explain the international behaviour of states. Other fully revised chapters on ‘Technology and Warfare’ and ‘Cyber Conflict in the Age of Great Power Competition’ focus on how digital and technological developments affect strategic decisions. Online resources now include a selection of materials from earlier editions.
Chapter
Introduction
Lise Rakner and Vicky Randall
This edition examines the changing nature of politics in the developing world in the twenty-first century, with emphasis on the complex and changing nexus between state and society. It analyses key developments and debates, and this is illustrated by current examples drawn from the global South, tackling a range of issues such as institutions and governance, the growing importance of alternative politics and social movements, security, and post-conflict state-crafting. The text also discusses the Arab Spring and South–South relations and offers new case studies of Syria and the Sudan as well as China, India, and Brazil. This introduction considers the question of the meaningfulness of the Third World as an organizing concept, whether politics is an independent or a dependent variable, and a number of major interconnected global trends that have resulted in a growing convergence in the developing world. It also provides an overview of the organization of this edition.
