What is American Grand Strategy?
"Grand strategy is a term of art from academia, and refers to the collection of plans and policies that comprise the state’s deliberate effort to harness political, military, diplomatic, and economic tools together to advance that state’s national interest. Grand strategy is the art of reconciling ends and means. It involves purposive action — what leaders think and want. Such action is constrained by factors leaders explicitly recognize (for instance, budget constraints and the limitations inherent in the tools of statecraft) and by those they might only implicitly feel (cultural or cognitive screens that shape worldviews).
...[The study of American grand strategy] is an excellent way to bridge theory and practice. It begins with theory: leaders’ theories about how the world works and what is or ought to be their states’ roles in that world. Yet it is embodied in policy and practice: government action and reaction in response to real (or perceived) threats and opportunities. Grand strategy may be born in debates at the highest levels of national power, but it lives or dies in the collaborative action of myriad junior officials.
Grand strategy blends the disciplines of history (what happened and why?), political science (what underlying patterns and causal mechanisms are at work?), public policy (how well did it work and how could it be done better?), and economics (how are national resources produced and protected?). Students are especially drawn to grand strategy because it makes history more relevant, political science more concrete, public policy more broadly contextualized, and economics more security-oriented."
- Dr. Peter Feaver, Director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy
Read his full Foreign Policy article on "What is grand strategy and why do we need it?"
Why Study AGS at Duke?
At Duke we have distinctive strengths in political science and public policy, including a diversity of experience across the partisan divide, as well as a rich tradition of close collaboration with military and diplomatic history. AGS is a signature program for Duke students interested in national security policymaking.
Take advantage of...
- Exclusive opportunities to meet with prominent speakers in small group settings
- Field trips, simulations, battlefield staff rides, and other experiential learning opportunities
- Our network of policy, national security, and political science alumni and experts
- Summer Fellowships awarded to help fund AGS related summer internships and research opportunities
Four Core Pillars of the Duke AGS Program
Curriculum
The hallmark of AGS is a coveted advanced seminar co-taught by a political scientist and a historian only in the Fall semester. Upper level undergraduates and interested graduate students should contact Peter Feaver about enrolling in the course. Seats are extremely limited.
Speakers Program
AGS brings distinguished scholars and practitioners to Duke to interact with undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. The Ambassador Dave and Kay Phillips Family International Lectureship is the pinnacle of this program and features the most distinguished speakers in one or two signature high-profile events at Duke each year. Check our events page for upcoming events. Previous events, recordings, and photos are in the events archive.
Active Learning
AGS engages students outside of the classroom, providing distinctive and meaningful learning experiences to students in the form of crisis simulations, staff rides and other field opportunities.Undergraduates who have demonstrated strong commitment to the AGS program will be offered additional experiential education opportunities. In years past this has included Staff Rides, career exploration trips to Washington, D.C., and trips to military bases such as Fort Bragg and the Norfolk Naval Base.
Research
AGS advances scholarship and public engagement in the areas of American foreign policy and civil-military relations. Graduate students in fields related to Grand Strategy should contact Melanie Benson for involvement in small-group sessions with guests in the upcoming year. Each year AGS’s partner institution, TISS, invites doctoral candidates nearing completion of their degrees to apply to speak at our annual New Faces conference. Applications are solicited from across the nation and beyond; 7-10 are selected to present at the conference in the fall. Contact Carolyn Pumphrey for more information.
