Strategy Flashcards
What is the central concern of Paul Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of the Great Powers?
What was, is, and will be the connection between strategic powers and economic productivity?
What is his basic contention regarding the connection between economic growth and military power?
That since the 1500s, with the rise of European states, they have had a strong corrolation.
Does Kennedy believe that military and economic power track identically?
No. Not since 1500 has a state peaked economically and militarily. Power is always relative to the power held by other states.
What reasons does Kennedy give to explain Europe’s emergence in the 1500s?
Plurality of power centers, lack of cultural/ideological orthodoxy, existance of a market economy,
WHat are the stages of the rise and fall of power states?
1) Economic ability surges past residual military weakness. 2) Consolidation: states or coalitions use economic strength to reinforce strategic commitments in coalition warfare, 3) imperial overstretch, where strategic commitments strain the economic system.
