Rethinking American Grand Strategy

Co-Organizers

Christopher McKnight Nichols - Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies and Professor of History, The Ohio State University

Andrew Preston - W.L. Lyons Brown Jr. Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy and Statecraft, University of Virginia

Conference Overview

What has been, is, and should be U.S. grand strategy? Is there any such thing? If so, how might it be done more effectively to confront the myriad challenges that the U.S. and the world face today?

This conference brings together exceptional scholars and thinkers, eminent figures and rising stars to rethink the past and present of American grand strategy. In a series of innovative talks and original presentations the panelists seek to construct a rich account of how grand strategy has expanded and continues to operate in the U.S. role in the world in the twenty-first century.

The conference and resulting book will broaden the field of Grand Strategy beyond traditional assessments of the ends and means of (military) power, by including cutting-edge work on, non-state actors, raw materials, economics, race, gender, and other innovative ways of examining the history of American grand strategy. In emphasizing new subjects and new approaches, the larger objective is to provide a better understanding of the most pressing international issues not just of the past and present, but for the future as well. War, peace, and diplomatic strategy will be central, but conference participants also will engage with topics and on topics and areas not often historicized and understood in grand strategic terms, such as artificial intelligence, materials (e.g. rare earths), and climate change, as well as strategically critical regions (from Canada to Central Europe, from Southeast Asia to the Arctic) and geographies (e.g., space, the seas).

Together we will be developing new approaches to American Grand Strategy across an array of present concerns. Recommendations from each issue area will be informed by a rich account of past approaches to Grand Strategy, how they were realized in practice (or not), and how they played out. Participants will consider how the lessons of history can foster a more productive, holistic approach to domestic and international security.

Keen observers of U.S. foreign policy are divided in many ways, yet they united in their longing for a clearer view of U.S. strategic priorities, plans, and a process by which to at least seek to attain them. From across the political spectrum thinkers, politicians, journalists, and citizens alike want the United States to have a grand plan to meet the major challenges of the 21st century – nuclear proliferation, AI and cybersecurity, climate change, human rights, inequality, and more.

As the study of Grand Strategy expands beyond traditional assessments of the ends and means of (military) power, lead co-organizer Christopher McKnight Nichols proposes to consolidate the state of the field and propel it in new directions; in close collaboration with Andrew Preston, the two aim to build on their recent work through this conference and in a resulting new book.

Free and open to the public. Registration requested.

This event is supported by a grant from the Stanton Foundation.

Learn more about America 250 at Ohio State

Poster art by Kyle McCray.

Registration

There are separate registration forms for Day 1, May 29 and Day 2, May 30. Please complete both registrations if you plan to attend the whole conference.

May 29 Registration

May 30 Registration

The scholars below have been confirmed as Presenters or Panelists for the Rethinking Grand Strategy conference.

Daniel Sargent – Associate Professor of History and Public Policy, UC Berkeley.

Rush Doshi – Assistant Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; C.V Starr Senior Fellow for Asia Relations Council on Foreign Relations; Deputy Senior Director for China and Taiwan, National Security Council (2021-2024)

Frank Gavin – Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

James Steinberg – Dean, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; Among other relevant past positions, Deputy Secretary of State (2009-2011), Deputy National Security Advisor (1996-2000)

Michael Brenes – Associate Director, Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, Yale University

Kara Cunzeman – Director of Strategic Foresight, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, Aerospace Corporation

Rebecca Herman – Associate Professor of History, UC Berkeley

Rana Mitter – S.T. Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations, Harvard Kennedy School

Susan Colbourn, Associate Research Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy and Associate Director of the Program in American Grand Strategy, Duke University

Simon Miles, Associate Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, and Assistant Professor of History and Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Duke University

Asa McKercher, Steven K. Hudson Research Chair in Canada-US Relations, and Associate Professor in Public Policy and Governance, St. Francis Xavier University

Sergey Radchenko – Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Elisabeth Leake – Lee E. Dirks Professor in Diplomatic History, Fletcher School, Tufts University

Keisha Blain – Professor of Africana Studies and History, Brown University

Niki Hemmer – Associate Professor of History, Director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency, Vanderbilt University

Lydia Walker – Assistant Professor and Myers Chair in Global Military History, The Ohio State University

Neta Crawford – Montague Burton Chair in International Relations, Professorial Fellow at Balliol College, University of Oxford

Megan Black – Associate Professor of History, MIT

Michael De Groot – Assistant Professor of International Studies, Indiana University Bloomington

Christopher Dietrich – Associate Professor of History, Fordham University

Jayita Sarkar – Professor of Global History of Inequalities, Glasgow University

Josephine Wolff – Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy, Fletcher School, Tufts University

Sam Lebovic – Professor of History, George Mason University

Jonathan Hunt – Assistant Professor, Strategic and Operational Research Department, U.S. Naval War College

Joseph Steib – Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina

Eleanor Runde – Lawyer, Associate, Susman Godfrey LLP (Seattle, WA), Artificial Intelligence and Law Expert; Policy Advisor, Department of Commerce (2023-24); Consultant Kissinger Associates, Inc., co-author with Henry Kissinger Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit (2024)
Risa Brooks, Allis Chalmers Professor of Political Science, Marquette University
Anatol Klass, Assistant Professor, U.S. Naval War College

Friday, May 29, 2026

8:45AM - Registration, Coffee, Light Breakfast
9:30AM - Welcome, Opening Remarks, and Introduction
- Christopher McKnight Nichols, Ohio State University, and Andrew Preston, University of Virginia
10:00AM-11:45PM - Panel 1: Reflections on Grand Strategy
- Francis J. Gavin, Johns Hopkins University
  “The Art of Grand Strategy: Assessing Critical Choices in Real Time”
- Neta Crawford, St Andrews University
  “Down with Kool-Aid, Up with New Wine in New Bottles: Towards an Entirely New Grand Strategy”
- Michael Brenes, Yale University
  “Hubris and Failure: Grand Strategy at the End of the American Century”
12:00PM-1:00PM - Lunch in Daley Pavilion
1:00PM-3:00PM - Panel 2: Politics and Threats
- Keisha N. Blain, Brown University
  “Black American Women, Anti-Colonial Politics, and Grand Strategies from Below”
- Sam Lebovic, George Mason University
  “Grand Strategy’s Democracy Gap, or, what do we talk about when we talk about ‘the National Interest?’”
- Nicole Hemmer, Vanderbilt University
  “The End of Liberal Media: The Collapse of a Democratic Press in an Illiberal Age”Eleanor Runde, Associate, Susman Godfrey
  “Diplomatic Sequencing in AI Safety”
3:00PM-3:30PM - Coffee Break
3:30PM-5:30PM - Panel 3: Military Strategies
- Risa Brooks, Marquette University
  “Civil-Military Relations and Strategic Assessment”
- Jonathan R. Hunt, U.S. Naval War College
  “A Killing Peace: American Grand Strategy, the Nuclear Revolution, and the Wars that Remained”
- Joseph Stieb, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
  “Through the Prism of Morality: Explaining Terrorism’s Grip on American Grand Strategy”
- Josephine Wolff, Tufts University, and Anatol Klass, U.S. Naval War College
  “Cyber power and grand strategy in China and the United States”

Saturday, May 30, 2026

8:45AM - Registration, Coffee, Light Breakfast
9:20AM - Welcome, Day Two Brief Opening Remarks
- Christopher McKnight Nichols, Ohio State University, and Andrew Preston, University of Virginia
9:30AM-11:30AM - Panel 4: Resources and the Role of Business
- Megan A. Black, MIT
  “Undermining Strategy: US Mineral Policies against Sovereignty and Earth Systems”
- Christopher Dietrich, Fordham University
  “Oil, Industrial Foreign Relations, and the Origins of National Insecurity”
- Michael De Groot, Indiana University
  “Economic Statecraft and the Contradictions of US Grand Strategy during the Cold War”
- Rebecca Herman, University of California, Berkeley
  “The Strategy of the Commons: Antarctica, the US, and the World”
11:45AM-12:45PM - Lunch in Daley Pavilion
1:00PM-3:00PM - Panel 5: Geographies of Space and Time
- Rana Mitter, Harvard University
  “The Two-Body Problem: China in US Grand Strategy”
- Simon Miles, Duke University
  “West of Somewhere: Eastern Europe in US Grand Strategy”
- Asa McKercher, St. Francis Xavier University
  “From 14th Colony to 51st State: Canada in American Grand Strategy”
- Kara Cunzeman, Founder, Unconstrained Futures
  “Space, the Final Frontier: Grand Strategy or Grand Chaos?”
3:00PM-3:30PM - Coffee Break
3:30PM-5:30PM - Panel 6: Opportunities and Challenges
- Elisabeth Leake, Tufts University
  “Decolonization and the Limits of US Grand Strategy”
- Daniel J. Sargent, University of California, Berkeley
  “The Hardware of Grand Strategy: Institutions and American Power”
- Susan Colbourn, Duke University
  “The Entangling Alliance Revisited: NATO and the Patterns of American Grand Strategy”
- Lydia Walker, Ohio State University
  “The United Nations: A Wartime Alliance during the Global Postwar”
5:30PM - Concluding Remarks and Next Steps
- Led by Christopher McKnight Nichols, Ohio State University, and Andrew Preston, University of Virginia