On grand strategy: A conceptual study and international relations

Abstract

States establish long-term plans and make foreign policy in compliance with these plans. However, foreign policy may not always reflect the long-term plan. In this sense, purely observing foreign policy may give misleading results and present short-term assessments. With short-term assessments, it is difficult to observe the breaks in foreign policies and to observe the harmony within. The grand strategy, on the other hand, focuses on the long-term plans on which foreign policy is based, and the harmony between policies. In this study, the features and the stages of the grand strategy that contain in the long-term plans of the states were examined. This study also aimed to develop the concept of grand strategy and engage it in conformity with its use in International Relations. Therefore in this study from which sources the grand strategy can arise has been analysed, as well. Additionally, under the grand strategy logic, which stages do the states pass till how a foreign policy logic is formed also underlied in this study.