Università Roma Tre

Week 1 – the Theory of Strategy: Basic Concepts

1. Introduction: course aims, assessment criteria, teaching format, readings. The Strategic Approach to International Relations

Michael Howard, ‘The Strategic Approach to International Relations’, British Journal of International Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1 (April 1976), pp. 67-75.

Hew Strachan, 'The Lost Meaning of Strategy', Survival 47/3 (2005), 33-54

2. The Concept of Strategy: Overview and analytical framework
Bob De Wit, Strategy: An International Perspective, 6th Edition (Andover: Cengage, 2017).
Niccolò Petrelli, La Grande Strategia e il Futuro della Competizione USA-Cina (Lugano: StartInsight/Europa Atlantica, 2021), 27-29, 53-55.
Edward Luttwak, Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2002), levels

Week 2 – The context and elements of Strategy

3. the International System: Features and Dynamics
Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (Princeton: Princeton UP: 1981), 9-39.

4. Grand Strategy and the International System
Edward Luttwak, Strategy, scope.
Niccolò Petrelli, La Grande Strategia e il Futuro della Competizione USA-Cina, 30.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies “Anarchy in International Relations”.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, “Interdependence in International Organization and Global Governance”.

5. The elements of Grand Strategy: Diagnosis, Objectives, Means
Niccolò Petrelli, La Grande Strategia e il Futuro della Competizione USA-Cina, 31-45.

Week 3 – How Strategy works

6. Strategy: Logic & mechanisms
Niccolò Petrelli, La Grande Strategia e il Futuro della Competizione USA-Cina, 45-51.

7. Strategy: process & contingency
Lawrence Freedman, Strategy, A History (Oxford: Oxford UP: 2013).
Hew Strachan, ‘Strategy and contingency’, International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs, Vol. 87, No. 6 (November 2011), pp. 1281-1296.

8. Strategic interaction
Bradford A. Lee, ‘Strategic Interaction: Theory and History for Practitioners’, in Thomas G. Mahnken (ed.) Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practice (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2012).

Week 4 – Types of Strategy

9. Strategy in Peacetime
Emily Goldman, Power in Uncertain Times (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2011), 12-36.

10. Competitive Strategy
Michael Porter, ‘What is Strategy?’, Harvard Business Review (January-February 1996).
Stephen Peter Rosen, ‘Competitive Strategies Theoretical Foundations, Limits, and Extensions’ in Thomas G. Mahnken (ed.) Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practice (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2012), 12-19.

11. Strategy in War

Colin S. Gray, The Strategy Bridge. Theory for Practice (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012), 69-74 (del file pdf).

Week 5 – Strategy in Practice

12. Analyzing and Assessing Strategy

William C. Wohlforth, ‘The Challenge of Evaluating Grand Strategy’, in Thierry Balzacq and Ronald R. Krebs (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2021).

13. From Strategy to Defense Planning, basic elements

Colin Gray, Strategy and Defense Planning. Meeting the Challenge of Uncertainty (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014), 1-43.

14.Midterm Exam (November 4)

Test with multiple answers questions, short answer questions, mid answer questions and one open question.

Week 6 – Strategy in practice (II)

15. Defense Planning in Practice

P. H. Liotta and Richmond M. Lloyd, ‘From Here to There. The Strategy and Force Planning Framework’, Naval War College Review, Spring 2005, Vol. 58, No. 2.

16. Military and Defense Innovation

Andrea Gilli and Mauro Gilli, “Why China Has Not Caught Up Yet: Military-Technological Superiority and the Limits of Imitation, Reverse Engineering, and Cyber Espionage,” International Security, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Winter 2018/19), 141–189.

17. Strategy, Innovation and Planning: Italy
Concetto Strategico del Capo di Stato Maggiore Difesa 2022

Week 7 – Strategy in practice: Case Studies

18. Strategy, Innovation and Planning: Italy (II)
Fabrizio Coticchia, 'Running in Chains. The transformation of Italian defense policy', in Matthew Evangelista (ed.) Italy from Crisis to Crisis. Political Economy, Security, and Society in the 21st Century (London: Routledge, 2018).
Alessandro Marrone & Andrea Gilli, Defense Innovation: the Italian Case.

19. Strategy, Innovation and Planning: NATO
Alessandro Marrone, 'NATO’s New Strategic Concept: Novelties and Priorities', IAI Notes.
NDC, The NATO Defense Planning Process.
Raquel Jorge Ricart, ‘NATO Defense Innovation and Deep Tech: Measuring Willingness and Effectiveness’, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, August 29, 2023

20. Strategy, Innovation and Planning: the EU
Giovanni Grevi, What Grand Strategy for Europe? (Bruxelles: CSDS, 2024)
Daniel Fiott, Beyond Strategy? Industrial Strategy and the Future of European Defence (Real Instituto Elcano, May 2024).

Week 8 – Strategy & conflict in the International System

21. War in Ukraine
Lawrence Freedman, ‘Escalation, Red Lines, Risk and the Russo-Ukraine War’, Alexander Dallin Memorial Lecture delivered to the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, Stanford University, 18 April 2024.

22. US-China Competition in the Indo-Pacific
Stephen Biddle and Ivan Oelrich, “Future Warfare in the Western Pacific: Chinese Antiaccess/Area Denial, U.S. AirSea Battle, and Command of the Commons in East Asia,” International Security, vol. 41. no. 1. (Summer 2016), pp. 7-48.

23. Students' presentations

Week 9 - Presentations

24. Students' presentations

25. Students' presentations

26. Students' presentations

Week 10

27. Final Exam

see program