Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy
“Leaders must be able to master four major tasks. Firstly, they need comprehensively to grasp the overall strategic situation in a conflict and craft the appropriate strategic approach–in essence, to get the big ideas right. Secondly, they must communicate those big ideas, the strategy, effectively throughout the breadth and depth of their organiza
... See moreYou control some things, but align yourself with others. You balance, while never forgetting that the reason you’re balancing is to get from where you are to where you want to go. You’re a fox and a hedgehog at the same time—even on water. That was the younger Pericles steering Athens: a polymath with a purpose. Over time, though, Pericles began tr
... See moreJohn Lewis Gaddis • On Grand Strategy
The argument is absurd, but only because it rejects any coexistence of contradictions in time or space: it thereby confirms Berlin’s claim that not all praiseworthy things are simultaneously possible. And that learning to live within that condition—let’s call it history—requires adaptation to incompatibles. That’s where grand strategy helps. For “i
... See moreJohn Lewis Gaddis • On Grand Strategy
I would sum up that history in a Hegelian framework: Adenauer supplied the thesis – anchoring his country in the West; Brandt added the antithesis – stabilizing relations to the East; and Kohl achieved the synthesis – a fusion of the two Germanys in a reconciled Europe. Brandt gets Cooper’s special acclaim. Although he doesn’t mention Angela Merkel... See more