Strategy: A History is a sweeping, magisterial account of this elemental force in human history. Since the beginning of civilization, humans have devised multi-step plans to achieve greater ends, and as history progressed plans became ever more elaborate. Short-term tactics evolved into longer-term strategies. Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the English speaking world's leading authorities on war and international politics, has synthesized the vast history of strategy's evolution in this consistently engaging and surprising account of how it came to pervade every aspect of life. Prior to the 20th century, the concept was restricted primarily to military matters, but over the course of time virtually every sector of society came to employ it. Today, we regularly apply the concept to not just military affairs and modern business culture, where it is most pervasive, but even to our intimate relationships.Bio: Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King's College London since 1982, and Vice-Principal since 2003. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE in 1996, he was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. He was awarded the KCMG in 2003. In June 2009 he was appointed to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War. Professor Freedman has written extensively on nuclear strategy and the cold war, as well as commentating regularly on contemporary security issues. His most recent book, A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East, won the 2009 Lionel Gelber Prize and Duke of Westminster Medal for Military Literature.
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This talk was hosted by Boris Debic.