Grand Strategy and Military Alliances

Williamson Murray is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Ohio State University and the Ambassador Anthony D. Marshall Chair of Strategic Studies at Marine Corps University, as well as a defense consultant and commentator on historical and military subjects in Washington, DC. His most recent books are Successful Strategies (edited with Richard Hart Sinnreich) and The Iran-Iraq War (written with Kevin Woods), both published by Cambridge in 2014, and War, Strategy, and Military Effectiveness and Military Adaptation in War, both published by Cambridge in 2011. He is co-editor of numerous books of military and international history, including Hybrid Warfare (with Peter Mansoor, Cambridge, 2012), The Shaping of Grand Strategy (with Richard Hart Sinnreich and James Lacey, Cambridge, 2011), The Making of Peace (with James Lacey, Cambridge, 2008), The Past as Prologue (with Richard Hart Sinnreich, Cambridge, 2006), The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050 (with MacGregor Knox, Cambridge, 2001), Military Innovation in the Interwar Period (with Allan R. Millett, Cambridge, 1996), and The Making of Strategy (with Alvin Bernstein and MacGregor Knox, Cambridge, 1994). Peter Mansoor is a 26-year veteran of the US Army whose service culminated as executive officer to General David Petraeus, commanding general of Multi-National Force-Iraq. He is the author of The GI Offensive in Europe: The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions, 1941-1945 (1999), awarded the Society for Military History and Army Historical Society distinguished book awards. He also authored Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq (2008), awarded the Ohioana Library Association distinguished book award, and Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War (2013), a finalist for the inaugural Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History.

'The need for alliances and coalitions in war are a fact of life not only for second and third tier powers, but even for the USA. They are not a new feature of history, but, as this group of leading experts in their fields richly demonstrates, they have a long pedigree. This excellent historical comparative study shows up the important elements of continuity - the structurally conditioned benefits and challenges - that help us address the issue in the present and the future more wisely. Any diplomat, journalist, military leader or student of international relations would do well to take its conclusions on board.' Beatrice Heuser, University of Reading

• 1. Introduction: grand strategy and alliances Peter R. Mansoor and Williamson Murray; Part I. Maritime Powers and the Continental Commitment: 2. Grand strategy, alliances, and the Anglo-American way of war Williamson Murray; 3. The Anglo-Prussian alliance and the Seven Years War Dennis Showalter; 4. Preserved by friend and foe alike: the sixth coalition against revolutionary France Richard Hart Sinnreich; 5. The Franco-British military alliance during World War I Paul Harris; 6. The grand alliance in World War II Mark A. Stoler; 7. Adapt and survive: NATO in the Cold War Ingo Trauschweizer; Part II. The Political and Military Challenges of Coalition Warfare: 8. The Peloponnesian War and Sparta's strategic alliances Victor Davis Hanson and David L. Berkey; 9. The Anglo-Burgundian alliance and grand strategy in the Hundred Years War Clifford J. Rogers; 10. The Franco-American alliance during the War for Independence Mark Grimsley; 11. The alliance that wasn't: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I Marcus Jones; 12. The Axis Williamson Murray; 13. The Gulf War, 1990–91: a coalition of convenience in a changing world Richard Swain; 14. Conclusion: alliances and coalitions in the twenty-first century Peter R. Mansoor; Index.