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Avoiding Trivia: The Role of Strategic Planning in American Foreign Policy
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After World War II, George Kennan became the State Department's first director of policy planning. Secretary of State George Marshall's initial advice to above all, ""avoid trivia."" Concentrate on the forest, not the trees, and don't lost sight of the big picture. Easier said than done. Avoiding Trivia critically assesses the past, future, and future role and impact of long-term strategic planning in foreign policy. Strategic planning needs to be a more integral part of America's foreign policymaking. Thousands of troops are engaged in combat while homeland security concerns remain. In such an environment, long-term coordination of goals and resources would seem to be of paramount importance. But history tells us that such cohesiveness and coherence are tremendously difficult to establish, much less maintain. Can policy planners—in the Pentagon, the 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 key figures from the past few decades of foreign policy and planning—individuals responsible for imposing some sort of order and strategic priority on foreign policy in a world that changes by the minute. They provide authoritative insight on the difficulties and importance of thinking and acting in a coherent way, for the long term. Andrew P. N. Erdmann, Peter Feaver, Aaron L. Friedberg, David F. Gordon, Richard N. Haass, William Inboden, Bruce W. Jentleson, Steven D. Krasner, Jeffrey W. Legro, Daniel Twining, Thomas Wright, Amy B. Zegart.
"
After World War II, George Kennan became the State Department's first director of policy planning. Secretary of State George Marshall's initial advice to above all, ""avoid trivia."" Concentrate on the forest, not the trees, and don't lost sight of the big picture. Easier said than done. Avoiding Trivia critically assesses the past, future, and future role and impact of long-term strategic planning in foreign policy. Strategic planning needs to be a more integral part of America's foreign policymaking. Thousands of troops are engaged in combat while homeland security concerns remain. In such an environment, long-term coordination of goals and resources would seem to be of paramount importance. But history tells us that such cohesiveness and coherence are tremendously difficult to establish, much less maintain. Can policy planners—in the Pentagon, the 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 key figures from the past few decades of foreign policy and planning—individuals responsible for imposing some sort of order and strategic priority on foreign policy in a world that changes by the minute. They provide authoritative insight on the difficulties and importance of thinking and acting in a coherent way, for the long term. Andrew P. N. Erdmann, Peter Feaver, Aaron L. Friedberg, David F. Gordon, Richard N. Haass, William Inboden, Bruce W. Jentleson, Steven D. Krasner, Jeffrey W. Legro, Daniel Twining, Thomas Wright, Amy B. Zegart.
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199 pages, Paperback
First published April 10, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 5, 2016
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.
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.
April 25, 2020
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.
January 3, 2022
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.
June 15, 2023
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.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews