Bringing together experts from across the globe to provide a comprehensive introduction to strategic studies, this is the only overview to critically engage with both enduring and contemporary issues that dominate strategy. Throughout the chapters, readers are encouraged to explore key debates and alternative perspectives. A debates feature considers key controversies and presents opposing arguments, helping students to build critical thinking skills and reflect upon a wide range of perspectives.

The new edition has been thoroughly updated to incorporate the latest developments in the field of strategic studies. Four new chapters feature in-depth coverage of cyber power and conflict, strategic culture, the evolution of grand strategy in China, and the relationship between military technology and warfare.

Digital formats and resources

The seventh edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats and is supported by online resources.

• The eBook offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features and links that offer extra learning support: Find the eBook on VitalSource.
• Online resources for students include: case studies that help to contextualise and deepen understanding of key issues; web links and further reading that provide students with opportunities to deepen their understanding of main topics and explore further areas of research interest; and multiple-choice questions that test students' knowledge of the chapters and provide instant feedback.
• Online resources for lecturers include: customisable PowerPoint slides to ensure clarity of explanation of key concepts and debates; and a test-bank of questions to reinforce key concepts and test students' understanding.

1: John Baylis, James J. Wirtz, and Jeannie L. Johnson: Introduction: Strategy in the Contemporary World
Part I: Enduring Issues of Strategy
2: Beatrice Heuser: The History of the Practice of Strategy from Antiquity to Napoleon
3: Michael Sheehan: The Evolution of Modern Warfare
4: Thomas G. Mahnken: Strategic Theory
5: John Garnett and John Baylis: The Causes of War
6: Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky: Strategic Culture
7: Justin Morris: Law, Politics, and the Use of Force
8: Ryan Grauer: Technology and Warfare
9: Roger Z. George: Intelligence and Strategy
10: Daniel Moran: Geography and Strategy
Part II: Contemporary Problems
11: James D. Kiras: Irregular Warfare: Terrorism and Insurgency
12: C. Dale Walton: Nuclear Weapons in the Twenty-first Century
13: John Baylis: The Control of Weapons of Mass Destruction
14: John Ferris: Conventional Power and Contemporary Warfare
15: Sheena Chestnut Greitens: Humanitarian Intervention and Peace Operations
16: Ryan C. Maness, Rebecca Lorentz, and Brandon Valeriano: Cyber Conflict in the Age of Great Power Competition
17: Stephanie Ortmann and Nicholas Whittaker: Geopolitics and Grand Strategy
18: Oriana Skylar Mastro: Chinese Grand Strategy
Part III: The Future of Strategy
19: Amitav Acharya and Jiajie He: Strategic Studies: The West and the Rest
20: Columba Peoples: Strategic Studies and its Critics
21: James J. Wirtz: A New Agenda for Security and Strategy?
22: Colin S. Gray and Jeannie L. Johnson: The Practice of Strategy
23: Sir Lawrence Freedman: Does Strategic Studies Have a Future?

Edited by John Baylis , Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations, Swansea University

James J. Wirtz , Professor of National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California

Jeannie L. Johnson , Director of Center for Anticipatory Intelligence and Associate Professor, Utah State University

John Baylis is Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations and a former Pro-Vice Chancellor at Swansea University. Prior to that he was Professor of International Politics and Dean of Social Sciences at Aberystwyth University. He has published more than 20 books and over a hundred chapters and articles. His books include The Makers of Nuclear Strategy, with John Garnett (Pinter, 1991); The Globalization of World Politics, with Steve Smith and Patricia Owens (8th edn, Oxford University Press, 2020); An Introduction to Global Politics, with Steven Lamy, Steve Smith, and Patricia Owens (4th edn, Oxford University Press, 2016); and The British Nuclear Experience: The Role of Beliefs, Culture and Identity, with Kristan Stoddart (Oxford University Press, 2015). He has a BA, MSc (Econ), PhD, and DLitt from Swansea and Aberystwyth Universities.

James J. Wirtz is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. He is the author of Understanding Intelligence Failure (Routledge, 2017). Along with Loch Johnson, he is the editor of Intelligence: The Secret World of Spies (5th edn, Oxford University Press, 2019). He received his PhD from Columbia University.

Jeannie L. Johnson is the Founding Director of the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence at Utah State University and an Associate Professor in the Political Science department. She is the author of The Marines, Counterinsurgency, and Strategic Culture: Lessons Learned and Lost in America's Wars (Georgetown University Press, 2018) and the co-editor of Crossing Nuclear Thresholds: Leveraging Socio-Cultural Insights into Nuclear Decisionmaking (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Dr Johnson previously worked for the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence and the US State Department. She received her doctorate from the University of Reading in 2013.