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The large and growing field of grand strategy studies desperately needs Tudor Onea’s The Grand Strategies of Great Powers. With unmatched erudition on both the modern history of international politics and the best and most influential writings on strategy and grand strategy, Onea provides a compelling account of archetypal grand strategies and their application by leaders ranging from Peter the Great to Bismarck to Stalin. This will be a go-to volume for those who teach, study, and reflect upon grand strategy.

William Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor, Dartmouth College

This important book represents a significant advance in our understanding of grand strategy. In contrast to single-country studies, Professor Onea probes actor understandings and utilization of grand strategy comparatively. He offers a typology of seven ideal type grand strategies and uses them to analyze the foreign policies of some of the most and least effective leaders of the modern era. These cases prompt generalizations about the circumstances to which these strategies are appropriate and the essential conditions of their success. These lessons are then deployed to evaluate the grand strategies of present-day United States, China, and Russia. This book is as relevant to policymakers as it is to scholars.

Richard Ned Lebow, Professor of International Political Theory, King's College London and James O. Freedman Presidential Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth College

We know that states with coherent grand strategies are more likely to advance their interests than states that pursue ad hoc policies. But what kinds of grand strategies are most effective for what kinds of states and under what conditions? How do we know if a state has a grand strategy? To answer these questions Tudor Onea develops a new theory of grand strategy and applies it to some of history’s most important great powers and most intriguing leaders. The Grand Strategies of Great Powers will be immensely valuable to international relations theorists, diplomatic historians, students, and all those interested in contemporary international affairs.

Jack S Levy, Board of Governors Professor, Rutgers University

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