The Reluctant Theorist: Colin Gray and the Theory of Strategy by James J. Wirtz, with introduction

Written as part of a collection of essays discussing Colin S. Gray’s book The Strategy Bridge, this article presents two key issues that preoccupied Gray throughout his long and productive career:

1. the failure of strategists to recognize the dialectical nature of war and strategy;
2. the difficulty in using military means to achieve political ends.

The article also points out the similarities in both style and substance between The Strategy Bridge and On War, written by the Prussian philosopher Carl Von Clausewitz. Given the exalted place held by Clausewitz in the pantheon of strategists Gray revered, that was quite a compliment. As John Baylis observed, ‘Colin would have liked that comparison very much’.

View ‘The Reluctant Theorist: Colin Gray and the Theory of Strategy’ at Military Strategy Magazine