Published November 11, 2026 | Episode 484
Strategy has become a word with nearly all its meaning extracted from it. As my guest Eliot Cohen observes, “every village lost to Russian advances in Ukraine has had the adjective ‘strategic’ attached to it by journalists who merely mean to say ‘important’; every tactical scheme to cross a river or seize a town is a ‘strategy.’” In typical day-to-day usage, he writes, the word “strategy…is more or less equivalent to the word ‘plan.’”
This is in many ways comparable to the overuse and misuse of the word “culture.” But just as dispensing with the concept of culture would be an act of intellectual nihilism, so also—Cohen argues—would dispensing with strategy. In his new book, The Strategist: How to Think About War and Politics, he provides a primer for would-be strategists, consumers of their intellectual output, and everyone implicated in the consequences of strategy—which is to say, citizens.
About the Guest
Eliot A. Cohen is the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and professor emeritus at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he formerly served as dean. He has taught at Harvard and the U.S. Naval War College, served in the U.S. Army Reserve, worked in the Department of Defense and intelligence community, and served as counselor of the Department of State from 2007 to 2009. His books include Supreme Command, Conquered into Liberty, and The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall. With Eric Edelman, he hosts the podcast and Substack Shield of the Republic. This is his third appearance on Historically Thinking.
For Further Investigation
Eliot A. Cohen, The Strategist: How to Think About War and Politics (Princeton University Press, 2026).
—, Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime (Free Press, 2002).
—, The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall (Basic Books, 2023).
—, “Why Is Strategy So Difficult?”, adapted from The Strategist, in The Atlantic.
Carl von Clausewitz, On War, edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton University Press, rev. ed., 1984).
Shield of the Republic, Cohen and Eric Edelman’s podcast and Substack on foreign policy and national security.
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, “The Atlantic Charter”, on the August 1941 meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill.
Related Episodes
Hollow Crown: Eliot Cohen on Shakespeare’s understanding of leadership, character, power, and political failure.
War and Power: Phillips Payson O’Brien on military power, industrial capacity, logistics, and why wars are actually won.
The Devils Will Get No Rest: James Conroy on Roosevelt, Churchill, coalition leadership, and the strategic decisions made at Casablanca.
Tags
Eliot Cohen; Strategy; Strategic Thinking; Carl von Clausewitz; Winston Churchill; Franklin Roosevelt; Military History; Civil-Military Relations; Statecraft; Leadership; Historically Thinking
