In an essay, discuss grand strategy and its interrelationships with intelligence and rationality (to include patterns of cognition and “worldviews”). In your estimation, what is grand strategy and how can intelligence help to shape it with maximum effect? What are the pitfalls associated with intelligence analysis and rationality, and the traps or blind spots into which they often lead the strategist and the analyst? This paper builds on your knowledge up to this point in the course, so there will be useful insights from it that you can use as baselines for the organization of and argumentation in your final paper. However, the final is much more far-reaching in terms of its focus and what it requires you to do.
Be sure to do the following:
Provide your definition of grand strategy.
Discuss how the making of grand strategy and intelligence interact.
Discuss how the pitfalls associated with rationality can derail the policy and intelligence processes, resulting in muddled and ineffective grand strategy.
Use at least one historical example from your readings to make your case.
Refer to at least two prominent theorists and their key ideas to make your case.
Be sure not to use any part of your mid-term or forum discussions in this essay as this is self-plagiarism as discussed in the links below on the subject. Any attempt to plagiarize or self-plagiarize will result in a zero for a grade and be referred to the appropriate university office.
Due to the instructor by Wednesday of Week 8 before 11:59 P.M. Late assignments will not be accepted unless previously discussed with the instructor. If discussion leads to late acceptance, the essay will be graded and a daily deduction of 10 points a day will be imposed in addition to your score.
Angelo State University employs a letter grade system. Grades in this course are determined on a percentage scale:
Complete instructions and guidance on bibliographic and citation guidelines should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition. The CMOS footnote citation (not author-date) format will be used for this assignment.
Sources:
T.X. Hammes, Insurgency: Modern Warfare Evolves in a Fourth Generation, Strategic Forum No. 214, National Defense University, Jan 2005. Located at www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/sf214.pdf
A.J. Echevarria II, Fourth Generation War and Other Myths, Strategic Studies Institute Monograph, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, Nov 2005. Located at http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub632.pdf
Peter T. Underwood, Pirates, Vikings and Teutonic Knights, Armed Groups Studies in National Security, Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency, ed., Jeffrey Horwitz, US Naval War College, 2008. Located at http://www.jeffnorwitz.com/SiteAssets/book-chapters/01%20Pirates,%20Vikings,%20and%20Teutonic%20Knights.pdf
Querine Hanlon, Globalization and the Transformation of Armed Groups, Armed Groups Studies in National Security, Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency, ed., Jeffrey Horwitz, US Naval War College, 2008. Located at http://www.jeffnorwitz.com/SiteAssets/book-
