I recently discovered the Chief of U.K. Defence Staff’s Recommended Reading [Note: link not currently working] site and have been browsing through it. One book stood out since it addresses one of my favorites: Thucydides on Strategy [ditto] by Athanassios G. Platias and Konstantinos Koliopoulos.

This slim volume shows that the theory of grand strategy can be traced back to Thucydides’ famous History of the Peloponnesian War. In a readable 20-page first chapter, the authors set out a useful typology of grand strategies applicable across history. This summary of what classical strategy has to offer reminds us that modern governments often fail to apply the wisdom of the ancient thinkers.

Click on the link and you’ll find the extract is the first chapter they mention , “Grand Strategy: A Framework For Analysis.”

The main argument of this study is that Thucydides’ text is a classic masterpiece of strategy that contains significant strategic insights and a wealth of strategic concepts (see Appendix). Seen in this light, Thucydides’ History has at least equal right with Clausewitz’ On War to be considered ‘the strategist’s toolkit’. Needless to say, Thucydides did not use contemporary strategic jargon. One has to delve in the text in order to uncover these insights and concepts. This is where our own contribution lies: to bring to the surface and translate into modern strategic parlance the aforementioned concepts and insights.

Be sure to click on the Archive page [out of order, again] for the core of expected reads for developing strategic thinking.