Look Who it Was Random video

Strategy and Democracy - Hew Strachan

1,695 views · Published 8 November 2018 · 59:04 · Indexed 7 October 2026

Channel: Gresham College · 2018 · Education

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00:00 // Introduction: A Divided Message in Kabul
02:30 // Wars Among the People — Rupert Smith's Framework
05:00 // Obama, Cameron & the Politics of Withdrawal
08:00 // When Exit Strategies Replace Real Strategy
11:00 // Democracy, War & the Problem of Mixed Messaging
14:30 // Democratic Peace Theory — Myth or Reality?
18:00 // From Ancient Athens to the French Revolution
23:00 // Nuclear Weapons & the Demobilisation of Citizens
28:00 // The Broken Fiscal Link — Who Pays for War?
33:00 // Civil-Military Relations & the Huntington Model
38:00 // Drones, Proxies & the Illusion of Limited War
43:00 // Four Reasons Western Strategy Is Failing

Today's cry in democratic states, and not just from representatives of populist parties, is government with the people rather than government for the people. This presents a problem for issues of war and strategy. Presidents and Prime Ministers, in presenting their decisions to their electorates, use rhetoric borrowed from the Second World War, although they are not committing their states to wars on that scale. The declared ends do not match the means. The result is public confusion and strategic failure.

This lecture was recorded by Sir Hew Strachan on the 29th of October 2018

Sir Hew Strachan is a Scottish military historian. He is currently Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and a council member of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland. Since May 2014, he has been Lord Lieutenant of Tweeddale. Before moving to St Andrews, Professor Strachan was the Chichele Professor of the History of War at All Souls College, Oxford. 

His recent books include The First World War: Volume 1: To Arms (2001), The First World War: an illustrated history (2003), Clausewitz’s On War: a Biography (2007), and The Direction of War (2013).

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/strategy-and-democracy

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