عنوان

The Limits of a Grand Strategy Paradigm in International Relations: Lessons from Israeli History, 1977-1983

Number

TL52047

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

The Limits of a Grand Strategy Paradigm in International Relations: Lessons from Israeli History, 1977-1983

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Barbalat, Ari

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Spiegel, Steven

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of California, Los Angeles

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2019

Text of Note

289 p.

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of California, Los Angeles

Text preceding or following the note

2019

Text of Note

Grand strategy is the idea that there is an intellectually coherent "concept" available and desirable which integrates disparate foreign policy behaviours and activities into a unified whole which is readily implementable. This dissertation will probe -- using examples from the diplomatic history of Israel under Prime Minister Menachem Begin -- why 'grand strategy' fails to explain episodes in the history of Israeli foreign policy; Israeli history during this period highlights how one of the world's most agile foreign policies manifest in Israel's was able to thrive without one. The purpose of this dissertation is to suggest that the history of Israeli foreign policy challenges many assumptions of the presently popular "grand strategy" studies. By "grand strategy" I refer to the idea that states can, should and do possess an intellectually coherent integration of disparate foreign policy goals as a unity. The history of Israeli foreign policy offers many conceptual lessons that challenge the assumptions of this thinking. There is much to be said for the idea that countries "should" have a "grand strategy." Especially in a world like ours where the average layman (and statesman) does not ponder or comprehend the nuance of world affairs and the subtlety of international history, the intellectualism of grand strategy studies is a virtuous ideal. But the very "intellectualism" inherent in the idea of grand strategy is neither attainable nor possible nor helpful in many circumstances. This study suggests that the history and theory of Israeli foreign policy may be appreciated as the conceptual "obverse" of grand strategy studies.

Subject Term

Political science

Barbalat, Ari

Spiegel, Steven

University of California, Los Angeles

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y