Lukas Milevski | Universiteit Leiden (original) (raw)

Books by Lukas Milevski

Research paper thumbnail of Rietumu austrumi: mūsdienu Baltijas aizsardzība no stratēģiskā viedokļa

Riga: Jumava 2019. Latvian translation of The West's East: Contemporary Baltic Defense in Strate... more Riga: Jumava 2019. Latvian translation of The West's East: Contemporary Baltic Defense in Strategic Perspective.

Research paper thumbnail of The West's East: Contemporary Baltic Defense in Strategic Perspective

Defense of the Baltic has gained unprecedented prominence in the West in view of a post-2014 resu... more Defense of the Baltic has gained unprecedented prominence in the West in view of a post-2014 resurgent Russia. The West's East follows the principles of strategic analysis for a systematic introduction to defense of the three Baltic states within their own context of broader security vulnerabilities as well as the historical and current contexts of both allies and neighboring powers. This 800-year overview-from indigenous Baltic tribes to the post-Cold War period-provides a historical and strategic perspective on conditions in which independent states existed and flourished among predatory great powers.

More recent historical events and personalities also form the basis for analogies which are often used, rightly or wrongly, by Western observers to understand Russia and its relationship to the West. Today's strategic balance in the Baltic region is characterized through general analysis of the individual actors' geopolitical outlook, strategic culture, military capabilities, and non-military security vulnerabilities. The dynamics of potential strategic interactions between NATO and Russia are anticipated in case of hypothetical conflict in the Baltic, premised upon the general theory of strategy and essential strategic logic. These potential interactions range from deterrence, through various considerations of strategy in war itself, and the thorniness of war termination. Finally, more technical and esoteric aspects of military strategy related to instrumentality, effect, adversary, and control are considered in relation to the ultimate question of how much defense for the Baltic is enough.

Research paper thumbnail of The Evolution of Modern Grand Strategic Thought

Oxford University Press, 2016. This book tracks the historical evolution of grand strategic thou... more Oxford University Press, 2016.

This book tracks the historical evolution of grand strategic thought. A conceptual history of grand strategy, it traces what people meant when they employed the term. The book refutes a number of commonly held beliefs or assumptions, including that Basil Liddell Hart first coined the term and developed the concept, and that grand strategy experienced only a single evolutionary path. Originally a product of nineteenth-century military thought, grand strategy acquired broader conceptual boundaries and wider popularity through adoption by maritime strategy by the early twentieth century.

Between the World Wars, the Britons John Frederick Charles Fuller and Basil Liddell Hart wrote extensively about grand strategy, while in the United States a myriad of opinions concerning grand strategy emerged, including those of Edward Mead Earle. Grand strategy’s popularity waned during the first half of the Cold War as a result of the immediate importance of developing nuclear strategy and limited war theories. However, as a result of changing intellectual and geopolitical contexts by the early 1970s, grand strategy regained and surpassed its previous popularity, which to this day it has yet to lose even though the range of meanings the concept has attained through overuse has become wider and therefore more obscure.

Monographs by Lukas Milevski

Research paper thumbnail of Grand Strategy is Attrition: The Logic of Integrating Various Forms of Power in Conflict

Strategic Studies Institute Monograph, Advancing Strategic Thought series, 2019

Book Chapters by Lukas Milevski

Research paper thumbnail of What to Expect of the Strategist: Can Strategy be Mastered?

ategy Matters…Essays in Honor of Colin S. Gray, 2022

in Donovan C. Chau (ed). Strategy Matters…Essays in Honor of Colin S. Gray. (Maxwell: Air Unive... more in Donovan C. Chau (ed). Strategy Matters…Essays in Honor of Colin S. Gray. (Maxwell: Air University Press 2022), 177-198.

Research paper thumbnail of Liddell Hart’s Impact on the Study of Grand Strategy

The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy, 2021

“Liddell Hart’s Impact on the Study of Grand Strategy” in Thierry Balzacq and Ronald R. Krebs (ed... more “Liddell Hart’s Impact on the Study of Grand Strategy” in Thierry Balzacq and Ronald R. Krebs (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy. (Oxford: Oxford UP 2021), 73-88.

Research paper thumbnail of The Emotions of Adversarial Interaction

The Conduct of War in the 21st Century: Kinetic, Connected and Synthetic, 2021

“The Emotions of Adversarial Interaction” in Robert Johnson, Martijn Kitzen, and Tim Sweys (eds).... more “The Emotions of Adversarial Interaction” in Robert Johnson, Martijn Kitzen, and Tim Sweys (eds). The Conduct of War in the 21st Century: Kinetic, Connected and Synthetic. (London: Routledge 2021), 279-292.

Research paper thumbnail of Variable Heroism: Landpower in US Grand Strategy since 9/11

In Jason Warren (ed). Landpower in the Long War: Projecting Force after 9/11. (Lexington: UP of... more In Jason Warren (ed). Landpower in the Long War: Projecting Force after 9/11. (Lexington: UP of Kentucky 2019), 15-31.

Articles by Lukas Milevski

Research paper thumbnail of When Does Gray Zone Confrontation End? A Conceptual Analysis

Joint Force Quarterly, 2024

When Does Gray Zone Confrontation End? A Conceptual Analysis”, Joint Force Quarterly 112 (January... more When Does Gray Zone Confrontation End? A Conceptual Analysis”, Joint Force Quarterly 112 (January 2024), 4-11.

Research paper thumbnail of The Primitivisation of Major Warfare

Survival, 2023

Despite optimistic technological visions, future warfare is likely to consume and destroy militar... more Despite optimistic technological visions, future warfare is likely to consume and destroy military equipment and manpower at rates for which the West is ill-prepared. Medium and larger militaries in particular may be primitivised during and by future warfare: they may become more socially, organisationally, and technologically primitive versions of themselves. This is a process with historical and contemporary precedent, as experienced by the Wehrmacht during World War II and the Russian army in Ukraine today. The tactical and operational realities of sustained military campaigning against a major adversary may well primitivise Western militaries too, a challenge for which better technology is both only a partial answer and a vulnerability. Primitivisation has implications not only for defence industrial and manpower policies, but also force design and ultimately employment.

Research paper thumbnail of What Makes a Good Strategic Concept?

Comparative Strategy, 2023

Comparative Strategy 42/5 (September 2023), 718-728. Open access, link provided.

Research paper thumbnail of Clausewitz at the Nexus of Competing Fashions

Journal of Strategic Studies, 2023

Journal of Strategic Studies 46/4 “Fads and Fashions in Strategic Studies” special issue (2023), ... more Journal of Strategic Studies 46/4 “Fads and Fashions in Strategic Studies” special issue (2023), 787-808. Open access, link provided.

Research paper thumbnail of Western Strategy’s Two Logics: Diverging Interpretations

Journal of Strategic Studies

Journal of Strategic Studies 46/1 (2023), 180-206.

Research paper thumbnail of Russian Logistics and Forward Urban Defense in the Baltic States

Military Review, 2022

Editor's note: This article is a reprint of a Military Review

Research paper thumbnail of Conceptual Resilience versus Social Utility in Strategic Thinking

RUSI Journal, 2022

RUSI Journal 167/2 (2022), 62-70. Open access.

Research paper thumbnail of Russia’s Escalation Management and a Baltic Nuclear Weapon Free Zone

Research paper thumbnail of The Grand Strategic Thought of Colin S. Gray

Research paper thumbnail of Strategic Sense in the Writing and Reading of History

Military Strategy, 2021

Military Strategy 7/3 (Summer 2021), 4-8.

Research paper thumbnail of Colin S. Gray, Deterrence, and Contingency

Comparative Strategy, 2021

“Colin S. Gray, Deterrence, and Contingency”, Comparative Strategy 40/2 (2021), 145-149.

Research paper thumbnail of War and Peace: Reaffirming the Distinction

Research paper thumbnail of Rietumu austrumi: mūsdienu Baltijas aizsardzība no stratēģiskā viedokļa

Riga: Jumava 2019. Latvian translation of The West's East: Contemporary Baltic Defense in Strate... more Riga: Jumava 2019. Latvian translation of The West's East: Contemporary Baltic Defense in Strategic Perspective.

Research paper thumbnail of The West's East: Contemporary Baltic Defense in Strategic Perspective

Defense of the Baltic has gained unprecedented prominence in the West in view of a post-2014 resu... more Defense of the Baltic has gained unprecedented prominence in the West in view of a post-2014 resurgent Russia. The West's East follows the principles of strategic analysis for a systematic introduction to defense of the three Baltic states within their own context of broader security vulnerabilities as well as the historical and current contexts of both allies and neighboring powers. This 800-year overview-from indigenous Baltic tribes to the post-Cold War period-provides a historical and strategic perspective on conditions in which independent states existed and flourished among predatory great powers.

More recent historical events and personalities also form the basis for analogies which are often used, rightly or wrongly, by Western observers to understand Russia and its relationship to the West. Today's strategic balance in the Baltic region is characterized through general analysis of the individual actors' geopolitical outlook, strategic culture, military capabilities, and non-military security vulnerabilities. The dynamics of potential strategic interactions between NATO and Russia are anticipated in case of hypothetical conflict in the Baltic, premised upon the general theory of strategy and essential strategic logic. These potential interactions range from deterrence, through various considerations of strategy in war itself, and the thorniness of war termination. Finally, more technical and esoteric aspects of military strategy related to instrumentality, effect, adversary, and control are considered in relation to the ultimate question of how much defense for the Baltic is enough.

Research paper thumbnail of The Evolution of Modern Grand Strategic Thought

Oxford University Press, 2016. This book tracks the historical evolution of grand strategic thou... more Oxford University Press, 2016.

This book tracks the historical evolution of grand strategic thought. A conceptual history of grand strategy, it traces what people meant when they employed the term. The book refutes a number of commonly held beliefs or assumptions, including that Basil Liddell Hart first coined the term and developed the concept, and that grand strategy experienced only a single evolutionary path. Originally a product of nineteenth-century military thought, grand strategy acquired broader conceptual boundaries and wider popularity through adoption by maritime strategy by the early twentieth century.

Between the World Wars, the Britons John Frederick Charles Fuller and Basil Liddell Hart wrote extensively about grand strategy, while in the United States a myriad of opinions concerning grand strategy emerged, including those of Edward Mead Earle. Grand strategy’s popularity waned during the first half of the Cold War as a result of the immediate importance of developing nuclear strategy and limited war theories. However, as a result of changing intellectual and geopolitical contexts by the early 1970s, grand strategy regained and surpassed its previous popularity, which to this day it has yet to lose even though the range of meanings the concept has attained through overuse has become wider and therefore more obscure.

Research paper thumbnail of Grand Strategy is Attrition: The Logic of Integrating Various Forms of Power in Conflict

Strategic Studies Institute Monograph, Advancing Strategic Thought series, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of What to Expect of the Strategist: Can Strategy be Mastered?

ategy Matters…Essays in Honor of Colin S. Gray, 2022

in Donovan C. Chau (ed). Strategy Matters…Essays in Honor of Colin S. Gray. (Maxwell: Air Unive... more in Donovan C. Chau (ed). Strategy Matters…Essays in Honor of Colin S. Gray. (Maxwell: Air University Press 2022), 177-198.

Research paper thumbnail of Liddell Hart’s Impact on the Study of Grand Strategy

The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy, 2021

“Liddell Hart’s Impact on the Study of Grand Strategy” in Thierry Balzacq and Ronald R. Krebs (ed... more “Liddell Hart’s Impact on the Study of Grand Strategy” in Thierry Balzacq and Ronald R. Krebs (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy. (Oxford: Oxford UP 2021), 73-88.

Research paper thumbnail of The Emotions of Adversarial Interaction

The Conduct of War in the 21st Century: Kinetic, Connected and Synthetic, 2021

“The Emotions of Adversarial Interaction” in Robert Johnson, Martijn Kitzen, and Tim Sweys (eds).... more “The Emotions of Adversarial Interaction” in Robert Johnson, Martijn Kitzen, and Tim Sweys (eds). The Conduct of War in the 21st Century: Kinetic, Connected and Synthetic. (London: Routledge 2021), 279-292.

Research paper thumbnail of Variable Heroism: Landpower in US Grand Strategy since 9/11

In Jason Warren (ed). Landpower in the Long War: Projecting Force after 9/11. (Lexington: UP of... more In Jason Warren (ed). Landpower in the Long War: Projecting Force after 9/11. (Lexington: UP of Kentucky 2019), 15-31.

Research paper thumbnail of When Does Gray Zone Confrontation End? A Conceptual Analysis

Joint Force Quarterly, 2024

When Does Gray Zone Confrontation End? A Conceptual Analysis”, Joint Force Quarterly 112 (January... more When Does Gray Zone Confrontation End? A Conceptual Analysis”, Joint Force Quarterly 112 (January 2024), 4-11.

Research paper thumbnail of The Primitivisation of Major Warfare

Survival, 2023

Despite optimistic technological visions, future warfare is likely to consume and destroy militar... more Despite optimistic technological visions, future warfare is likely to consume and destroy military equipment and manpower at rates for which the West is ill-prepared. Medium and larger militaries in particular may be primitivised during and by future warfare: they may become more socially, organisationally, and technologically primitive versions of themselves. This is a process with historical and contemporary precedent, as experienced by the Wehrmacht during World War II and the Russian army in Ukraine today. The tactical and operational realities of sustained military campaigning against a major adversary may well primitivise Western militaries too, a challenge for which better technology is both only a partial answer and a vulnerability. Primitivisation has implications not only for defence industrial and manpower policies, but also force design and ultimately employment.

Research paper thumbnail of What Makes a Good Strategic Concept?

Comparative Strategy, 2023

Comparative Strategy 42/5 (September 2023), 718-728. Open access, link provided.

Research paper thumbnail of Clausewitz at the Nexus of Competing Fashions

Journal of Strategic Studies, 2023

Journal of Strategic Studies 46/4 “Fads and Fashions in Strategic Studies” special issue (2023), ... more Journal of Strategic Studies 46/4 “Fads and Fashions in Strategic Studies” special issue (2023), 787-808. Open access, link provided.

Research paper thumbnail of Western Strategy’s Two Logics: Diverging Interpretations

Journal of Strategic Studies

Journal of Strategic Studies 46/1 (2023), 180-206.

Research paper thumbnail of Russian Logistics and Forward Urban Defense in the Baltic States

Military Review, 2022

Editor's note: This article is a reprint of a Military Review

Research paper thumbnail of Conceptual Resilience versus Social Utility in Strategic Thinking

RUSI Journal, 2022

RUSI Journal 167/2 (2022), 62-70. Open access.

Research paper thumbnail of Russia’s Escalation Management and a Baltic Nuclear Weapon Free Zone

Research paper thumbnail of The Grand Strategic Thought of Colin S. Gray

Research paper thumbnail of Strategic Sense in the Writing and Reading of History

Military Strategy, 2021

Military Strategy 7/3 (Summer 2021), 4-8.

Research paper thumbnail of Colin S. Gray, Deterrence, and Contingency

Comparative Strategy, 2021

“Colin S. Gray, Deterrence, and Contingency”, Comparative Strategy 40/2 (2021), 145-149.

Research paper thumbnail of War and Peace: Reaffirming the Distinction

Research paper thumbnail of The Mirage of Post-Clausewitzianism: Understanding War and Politics on the Frontier of Clausewitzian Thought

Research paper thumbnail of Battle and its Emotional Effect in War Termination

Comparative Strategy, 2020

“Battle and its Emotional Effect in War Termination”, Comparative Strategy 39/6 (2020), 535-548.

Research paper thumbnail of Modern Liberal Wars, Illiberal Allies, and Peace as the Failure of Policy

Defense & Security Analysis, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Enunciating Strategy: How to Talk about Strategy Effectively

Military Strategy Magazine 7/1 (Spring 2020), 18-25.

Research paper thumbnail of Scenarios for Baltic Defence: What to Prepare Against

Lithuanian Annual Strategic Review, 2019

This article considers Baltic defence strategically, focusing on three scenarios of Russian aggre... more This article considers Baltic defence strategically, focusing on three scenarios of Russian aggression against the Baltic states: 1) an ambiguous invasion, what the West would call a hybrid war; 2) a hasty invasion by Russian formations already in and around the Baltic region; and 3) a prepared invasion by more substantial Russian forces brought within striking distance of the Baltic states from other parts of Russia. The ultimate question for each is: does this particular scenario present Russia with a viable strategy, a convincing theory of success? Each scenario is explored through the perspectives of military practice or tactics, then politics, and then synthesized through a strategic perspective. The article argues that neither the ambiguous invasion nor the hasty invasion scenarios provide convincing theories of success for Russia, whereas the prepared invasion does provide a compelling theory of victory.

Research paper thumbnail of Sanctuary, Honor, and War Termination: Considerations for Strategy in Baltic Defense

Orbis, 2020

Orbis 64/1 (Winter 2020), 150-160.

Research paper thumbnail of La Fiabilité des Engagements de Défense de L’OTAN envers Les Pays Baltes

Revue Stratégique, 2019

Revue Stratégique 121-122 (2019/1-2), 347-359.

Research paper thumbnail of The Strategic Response to Ambiguity

Orbis, 2019

Orbis 63/3 (Summer 2019), 376-390.

Research paper thumbnail of The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army

Orbis, 2017

Review of JP Clark, "Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917", Harvar... more Review of JP Clark, "Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917", Harvard UP 2017.

Research paper thumbnail of American Power & Liberal Order: A Conservative Internationalist Grand Strategy

Parameters 47/1 (Spring 2017), 144-145.

Research paper thumbnail of Strategy and Command, by Roy A. Prete

RUSI Journal 158/5 (October-November 2013), 107-108.