Generalship: High Command in War
Examine what it means to command at the very highest levels of war with a former CENTCOM commander.
In the final week of Political Studies, fellows will return to the question of statesmanship, what elevates it above ordinary political leadership, and separates it from tyranny.
The first section will focus on Thucydides’ masterpiece, The Peloponnesian War, and examine a series of strategic challenges and responses to them. The second section will consider the nature of ideological tyranny through the writings of two great twentieth-century authors: Arthur Koestler and Václav Havel.
Flagg Taylor on the Gulag
This course is part of our residential Political Studies Program. Fellows participate in morning seminars and meet prominent men and women in public life over afternoon and evening sessions. Up to 32 fellows will be selected.
Faculty
Flagg Taylor
Flagg Taylor is an Associate Professor of Government at Skidmore College, and serves on the Academic Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He is editor most recently of The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977–1989. He is currently writing a book on Czech dissent in the 1970s and 1980s and hosts The Enduring Interest podcast.
Flagg Taylor
Flagg Taylor is an Associate Professor of Government at Skidmore College. His research specialty is in the history of political thought and American government, especially the question of executive power. He serves on the Academic Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
He is the co-author of The Contested Removal Power, 1789-2010, author of numerous articles, and editor of The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism and The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977–1989. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in political science from Fordham University and a B.A. from Kenyon College.
Jakub J. Grygiel
Jakub Grygiel is an Associate Professor at the Catholic University of America. From 2017–18, he was a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State. His most recent book is Return of the Barbarians: Confronting Non-State Actors from Ancient Rome to the Present.
Jakub J. Grygiel
Jakub Grygiel is an Associate Professor at the Catholic University of America. From 2017–2018, he was a senior advisor to the Secretary of State in the Office of Policy Planning working on European affairs.
Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and on the faculty of SAIS-Johns Hopkins University. He has previously worked as a consultant for the OECD in Paris and the World Bank in Washington.
His most recent book is Return of the Barbarians: Confronting Non-State Actors from Ancient Rome to the Present. He is coauthor of The Unquiet Frontier: Rising Rivals, Vulnerable Allies, and the Crisis of American Power (with A. Wess Mitchell) and also the author of Great Powers and Geopolitical Change. His writings on international relations and security studies have appeared in The American Interest, Journal of Strategic Studies, Orbis, Commentary, Joint Forces Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly, as well as U.S., Swiss, Polish and Italian newspapers. He earned a Ph.D., M.A. and an MPA from Princeton University, and a BSFS Summa Cum Laude from Georgetown University.
Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session
Thucydides & Today's Challenges
Session I: How to Assess the Enemy
Readings:
Discussion Questions:
- Geopolitical rivalries begin and continue with an assessment of the enemy: how to know the rival?
- What are the consequences of a poor assessment?
Session II: The Role of Alliances
Readings:
Discussion Questions:
- Great powers fear “entrapment” (being dragged into small and peripheral wars by their allies) while their allies fear “abandonment” (being left alone by their distant security patron). How can these fears be mitigated? Do they reflect the reality of international politics?
- What is the importance of allies for the U.S.?
Session III: Land Power vs. Sea Power
Readings:
Discussion Questions:
- The Peloponnesian War was a conflict between a sea power (Athens) and a land power (Sparta). What are the features of such a conflict? What are the differences in how they conduct war?
- How did the strategy of Archidamus differ from that of Pericles?
- What strategy should the U.S. pursue against its continental rivals (China, Iran, Russia)?
Session IV: The Role of Domestic Cohesion and the Rise of Demagogues
Readings:
Discussion Questions:
- States are fragile. Factions are powerful while social cohesion can collapse unexpectedly. What are the sources of weakness and strength?
- How does internal cohesion (or lack thereof) affect foreign policy?
- What is the appeal of demagogues?
Session V: Are Distant Expeditions Always Doomed?
Readings:
Discussion Questions:
- Pericles warned against ambitious power projections. The Athenians went to Sicily and failed miserably. Are distant expeditions doomed? Was it a strategic blunder – or a strategic bold move but executed poorly?
