Strategic Thinking: An Introduction and Farewell. (Book Reviews)

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Strategic Thinking: An Introduction and Farewell. By Philip Windsor, edited by Mats Berdal and Spyros Economides. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002. 199 pages. $19.95.

It is unfortunate that Philip Windsor was not more widely published or more widely read during his lifetime. He had a keen mind and a unique perspective insofar as the Cold War period was concerned. Strategic Thinking: An Introduction and Farewell is his final work, ultimately edited by others and published after his death in 2000. The book grew out of a series of lectures titled "Strategic Aspects of International Relations" that he delivered during his tenure at the London School of Economics from 1967 to 1997. This book is an absolute must for any student of strategic thought.

Windsor's thesis is that the nuclear age was one in which "strategic thinking dominated the conduct of international affairs." It was, and is, an age in which strategy came to dominate politics because the means (nuclear weapons) in essence defined the ends. As …