Phillips Payson O'Brien on War and Power: Who Wins Wars - and Why

Phillips Payson O'Brien on War and Power: Who Wins Wars - and Why

This autumn we are welcoming Phillips Payson O'Brien back for his new and very topical book on war and those who hold its power.

War and power are two of the most-widely discussed issues in all of human history, and yet they are, time and again, misunderstood - often disastrously so.
Whilst we might think the outcome of war is determined by so-called 'Great Powers' who dominate their opponents with their impressive size and military prowess, the reality of modern conflict, as renowned strategic historian Professor Phillips Payson O'Brien demonstrates, is very different. He urges us instead to look for 'Full Spectrum Powers'.
For if we are considering how powerful a nation is and who will win a war, we need to think less about weapons, and more about the economies and societies that produce them; less about individual battles, and more about sustaining campaigns and alliances in which states operate.
Using fascinating examples from the late 19th century to the present day, War and Power explains how misunderstanding war and power has led to terrible, even preventable conflicts - such as the war in Ukraine - and how more accurate analysis can help us consider the potential conflict between the US and China.
War and Power provides a bold new way of understanding the dangerous world around us.

Phillips Payson O'Brien is Professor of Strategic Studies at St Andrews. He is the author of The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini and Hitler - How War Made Them, And How They Made War and How the War Was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II and The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff. He has written for The Atlantic, The Spectator and Foreign Affairs, and has a combined following of over 200k on Twitter and Substack.