Avoiding Trivia: The Role of Strategic Planning in American Foreign Policy

by Andrew Erdmann

Strategic planning needs to be a more integral part of America's foreign policymaking. While thousands of troops are engaged in combat and homeland security concerns abound, long-term coordination of goals and resources would seem to be of paramount importance. A change in presidential administration brings the hope that strategic planning will play an elevated role in U.S. foreign policy. Can policy planners - in the Pentagon, State Department, Treasury, NSC, and National Intelligence Council - rise to the challenge? Indeed, is strategic planning a viable concept in 21st-century foreign policy? These crucial questions guide this eye-opening book.

The contributors include many key figures from the past few decades of foreign policy and Andrew Erdmann, Peter Feaver, Aaron Friedberg, David F. Gordon, Richard Haass, William Inboden, Bruce Jentleson, Steven Krasner, Jeffrey Legro, Daniel Twining, Thomas Wright, and Amy Zegart. The book is published by Brookings Institution Press.

Genres: Politics, International Relations, Nonfiction

Audible Audio

First published April 10, 2009

Reviews

[Mark McGuire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good assessment of U.S. Strategic Planning in Foreign Policy.

The book is a collection of essays about Strategic Planning that offer great insights into the benefits in both a government and corporation/NGO format. The authors assess actions, behaviours, and policies that have benefitted or deterred strategic planning.

[John-Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to believe “Avoiding Trivia” is going to be a very useful reference for policy planners at State, DoD, Treasury, NSC, Intel agencies etc in the next presidency who will be repairing the current decay in United States Foreign Policy. The contributions by the many great thinkers on strategic planning in an increasingly complex world with many constraints emphasizes the notion that “foreign policy is hard.” This will no doubt instill in you a deeper appreciation of what practitioners in foreign policy do.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required reading for the National Security Policy Program at the US Army War College. A quick and easy read with historical context and suggested planning approaches for American Foreign Policy. Recommended for my strategy friends.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avoiding Trivia: The Role of Strategic Planning in American Foreign Policy is a collection of essays geared towards policy makers from (mostly) scholar practitioners. Some of the advice is sound, and there are a few familiar faces if you are someone who follows social sciences in this space. The main drawback is its age. Some of this book is a defense of the Bush administration, acting to use it as a guidepost for the Obama administration. As such, the world it describes, and the policy prescriptions it advices, are out of date. The general advice is good, some of the historical advice is good, but all that has to be disentangled and unmoored from the meta narrative between the texts. I wonder what type of book they would write now? That'd be fun to see.