Reminder: You Are Cordially Invited to Attend
A Talk by Williamson Murray, PhD
On His New Book
The Shaping of Grand Strategy:
Policy, Diplomacy and War

April 20, 2-4 pm

The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies (www.potomacinstitute.org) cordially invites you to attend a book talk on April 20, from 2-4 pm, with Williamson Murray, PhD, Director of the Institute's History, Social and Strategic Ideas Program.  Dr. Murray will discuss his book The Shaping of Grand Strategy: Policy, Diplomacy and War (Cambridge University Press, 2011).  Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.  Books may also be purchased on Amazon: click here to access the Amazon listing.  The event will be held at the Potomac Institute at 901 North Stuart Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22203. Registration is requested: please contact Laurie Kinney at lkinney@potomacinstitute.org. Please indicate that you are registering for the April 20 event.

Here's how Cambridge University Press describes this fascinating new book:   

Within a variety of historical contexts, The Shaping of Grand Strategy addresses the most important tasks states have confronted: namely, how to protect their citizens against the short-range as well as long-range dangers their polities confront in the present and may confront in the future. To be successful, grand strategy demands that governments and leaders chart a course that involves more than simply reacting to immediate events. Above all, it demands they adapt to sudden and major changes in the international environment, which more often than not involves the outbreak of great conflicts but at times demands recognition of major economic, political, or diplomatic changes. This collection of essays explores the successes as well as failures of great states attempting to create grand strategies that work and aims at achieving an understanding of some of the extraordinary difficulties involved in casting, evolving and adapting grand strategy to the realities of the world.

Dr. Williamson Murray graduated from Yale University in 1963 with honors in history.  He then served five years as an officer in the United States Air Force, including a tour in Southeast Asia with the 314th Tactical Airlift Wing (C-130s).  He then returned to Yale University, where he received his PhD in military-diplomatic history.  He taught two years in the Yale history department before moving on to Ohio State University in fall 1977 as a military and diplomatic historian.  He received the Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award in 1987.  He took early retirement from Ohio State in 1995 as Professor Emeritus of History. Dr. Murray has taught at a number of academic and military institutions, including the Air War College, the United States Military Academy, and the Naval War College.

There will be a live webcast of this event: click here to access our Live Events page.