THE 2018 PETER NAILOR MEMORIAL LECTURE ON DEFENCE
Today's cry in democratic states, and not just from representatives of populist parties, is government with the people rather than government for the people. This presents a problem for issues of war and strategy. Presidents and Prime Ministers, in presenting their decisions to their electorates, use rhetoric borrowed from the Second World War, although they are not committing their states to wars on that scale. The declared ends do not match the means. The result is public confusion and strategic failure.
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Sir Hew Strachan is a Scottish military historian. He is currently Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and a council member of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland. Since May 2014, he has been Lord Lieutenant of Tweeddale. Before moving to St Andrews, Professor Strachan was the Chichele Professor of the History of War at All Souls College, Oxford.
His recent books include The First World War: Volume 1: To Arms (2001), The First World War: an illustrated history (2003), Clausewitz’s On War: a Biography (2007), and The Direction of War (2013).
