Gray, Colin S. 1943-

PERSONAL:

Born 1943. Education: University of Manchester, B.A. (with honors), 1965; Lincoln College, Oxford, D.Phil., 1970.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Reading, Whiteknights, P.O. Box 218, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AA, England.

CAREER:

Educator. University of Reading, Reading, England, professor of international politics and strategic studies; has also taught at Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster, England; University of York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; University of Hull, Hull, England; and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Institute of International Affairs, Toronto, former executive secretary of the strategic studies commission; International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, England, former assistant director; Hudson Institute, Croton-on-Hudson, NY, director of national security studies, 1976—; National Institute for Public Policy, Fairfax, VA, founding president and chair, 1981—; National Institute for Public Policy, Fairfax, senior fellow. Member of President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, 1982-87; member of Panel of Experts, United Kingdom Strategic Defense Review, 1997-98; Force Development and Integration Center, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Arlington, VA, director, c. 2000. Former advisory panel member for the U.S. Army and Air Force, for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and for the U.S. Space Command; has also served as an advisor to the British Royal Navy.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Superior Public Service Award, U.S. Department of the Navy, 1987.

WRITINGS:

Canadian Defence Priorities: A Question of Relevance, foreword by John W. Holmes, Clarke, Irwin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1972.

Canada's Maritime Forces, Canadian Institute of International Affairs (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1973.

(Editor, with R.B. Byers) Canadian Military Professionalism: The Search for Identity, Canadian Institute of International Affairs (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1973.

The Soviet-American Arms Race, Lexington Books (Lexington, MA), 1976.

The Geopolitics of the Nuclear Era: Heartland, Rimlands, and the Technological Revolution, Crane (New York, NY), 1977.

(With Leon Gouré and William G. Hyland) The Emerging Strategic Environment: Implications for Ballistic Missile Defense, Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (Cambridge, MA), 1979.

SALT: Deep Force Level Reductions, Hudson Institute (Croton-on-Hudson, NY), 1981.

The MX ICBM and National Security, Praeger (New York, NY), 1981.

Strategic Studies and Public Policy: The American Experience, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1982.

Strategic Studies: A Critical Assessment, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1982.

American Military Space Policy: Information Systems, Weapon Systems, and Arms Control, Abt Books (Cambridge, MA), 1982.

Nuclear Strategy and Strategic Planning, Foreign Policy Research Institute (Philadelphia, PA), 1984.

(Editor, with Keith B. Payne) The Nuclear Freeze Controversy, foreword by Sam Nunn, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1984.

(Editor, with Barry R. Schneider and Keith B. Payne) Missiles for the Nineties: ICBMs and Strategic Policy, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 1984.

Missiles against War: The ICBM Debate Today, National Institute for Public Policy (Fairfax, VA), 1985.

Maritime Strategy, Geopolitics, and the Defense of the West, Ramapo Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Nuclear Strategy and National Style, Madison Books, 1986.

The Geopolitics of Super Power, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1988.

(Editor, with Roger W. Barnett) Seapower and Strategy, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1989.

War, Peace, and Victory: Strategy and Statecraft for the Next Century, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1990.

The Leverage of Sea Power: The Strategic Advantage of Navies in War, Free Press (New York, NY), 1992.

House of Cards: Why Arms Control Must Fail, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1992.

Weapons Don't Make War: Policy, Strategy, and Military Technology, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 1993.

The Navy in the Post-Cold War World: The Uses and Value of Strategic Sea Power, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA), 1994.

(Author of notes and introduction) C.E. Callwell, Military Operations and Maritime Preponderance: Their Relations and Interdependence, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1996.

Explorations in Strategy, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996.

(Editor, with Geoffrey Sloan) Geopolitics, Geography, and Strategy, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 1999.

The Second Nuclear Age, Lynne Rienner Publishers (Boulder, CO), 1999.

Modern Strategy, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Defining and Achieving Decisive Victory, Strategic Studies Institute (Carlisle Barracks, PA), 2002.

Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History, foreword by Murray Williamson, Portland (London, England), 2002.

Maintaining Effective Deterrence, Strategic Studies Institute (Carlisle Barracks, PA), 2003.

The Sheriff: America's Defense of the New World Order, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 2004.

Another Bloody Century: Future Warfare, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 2005.

Irregular Enemies and the Essence of Strategy: Can the American Way of War Adapt?, Strategic Studies Institute (Carlisle Barracks, PA), 2006.

Strategy and History: Essays on Theory and Practice, Routledge (New York, NY), 2006.

The Implications of Preemptive and Preventive War Doctrines: A Reconsideration, Strategic Studies Institute (Carlisle Barracks, PA), 2007.

War, Peace and International Relations: An Introduction to Strategic History, Routledge (New York, NY), 2007.

Fighting Talk: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, and Strategy, Praeger Security International (Westport, CT), 2007.

Contributor to SALT II, Rest in Peace: A Roundtable Discussion: The Louis Lehrman Auditorium, the Heritage Foundation, March 28, 1985, Heritage Foundation (Washington, DC), 1985. Contributor to periodicals, including Wilson Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Washington Quarterly, International Security, Foreign Policy, Survival, and the National Interest. Member of editorial board, Comparative Strategy, Naval War College Review, Journal of Strategic Studies, and the Journal of Terrorism and Organized Crime.

SIDELIGHTS:

A respected scholar of military history and strategy who, as a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States, has served as an advisor to both countries' militaries, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Colin S. Gray is also a university professor and founding chair of the National Institute for Public Policy in Fairfax, Virginia. Mackubin Thomas Owens asserted in a 2006 National Review article that "no one is more qualified to address the issue of future war than Gray, who has been the most consistently brilliant and prolific strategic thinker in the English-speaking world for the past three decades." Regarded as a classical realist in his writings and lectures, Gray is among those military thinkers who "take their lead from the writings of Thucydides, Sun Tzu, and [Carl von] Clausewitz and calculate strategy in terms of power and geography, or geostrategy," explained Mark T. Clark in a Naval War College Review of The Sheriff: America's Defense of the New World Order. In many of his books, Gray emphasizes that many students of the military and even political leaders fail to take lessons from history; they also tend to sacrifice solid military strategy for a faith in new technologies and outdated tactics against such threats as Muslim terrorism. Gray uses both the past and present to advise his readers on strategies for today and the future of the military.

American leaders should not be overly impressed by their own military firepower, Gray warns in his 1990 book, War, Peace, and Victory: Strategy and Statecraft for the Next Century. The work examines military strategies going back to ancient Greece and Rome, then explores the theories of Clausewitz and Alfred Mahan, two theorists upon whom Gray frequently relies in his writings, before continuing on to discuss the American mindset on tactics. Gray emphasizes, in a book published before the end of the Cold War, the need of military leaders to understand more completely the advantages and disadvantages of land versus sea power. It is Gray's assertion that, of the two, America's strength lies in its navy, as well as its air force, and so he protests Congress's efforts at the time to cut these branches while boosting land forces for combat in the Middle East. This is a point he also makes in his books The Leverage of Sea Power: The Strategic Advantage of Navies in War and The Navy in the Post-Cold War World: The Uses and Value of Strategic Sea Power. While Ralph De Toledano observed in the National Review that many of Gray's arguments center on the U.S.-Soviet situation and that, therefore, "his theorems will involve different variables" if considered under different circumstances, the critic attested that his "postulates remain valid." Genevieve Stuttaford, writing for Publishers Weekly, called War, Peace, and Victory "impressively broad" and "authoritative."

Some critics of Gray's work have found his positions controversial. For example, he has argued that a nuclear conflict can be winnable and not necessarily equate to a total annihilation of civilization. In a review of War, Peace, and Victory, Washington Monthly contributor Adam Yarmolinsky wondered why, "if Gray sees so little military utility in nuclear weapons, he is not more interested in reducing their numbers." Indeed, although Gray has maintained that nuclear weapons caches are useful for deterrence, in most cases he argues that traditional military conflicts between warring states will continue to be a fact of life. His Explorations in Strategy discusses the importance of America's air force. While also acknowledging the usefulness of special forces, Gray continues to emphasize strategy over technology in terms of winning conflicts. As James A. Huston put it in his Perspectives on Political Science review: "Gray recognizes that the ‘information war’ is a revolution in warfare, but the microchip is not the final stage any more than was the crossbow, gun powder, or the atomic bomb. Strategy must remain, as Clausewitz put it, the use of engagements for the object of the war."

Modern Strategy, Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History, and Strategy and History: Essays on Theory and Practice are more examples of Gray's continuing plea for an emphasis on strategy over mere military might and reliance on technology. The first title lays the ground-work of what Gray would contend in other books, as well: that while technology and politics might change, the basic art of warfare does not. Lamenting again the lack of strategic thinkers among America's politicians and even academics, Gray "describes the problem but offers no help in finding the solution," criticized Glen C. Collins in a Parameters review. Strategy for Chaos reiterates Gray's warning against supplanting genuine strategy with impressive-seeming high-tech military devices. "Gray is right to condemn incautious assertions—even by American Secretaries of Defense—that precision munitions or cyberspace weapons are altering the nature of war or strategy," commented Barry Watts in the Joint Force Quarterly. Other advances, such as nuclear weapons and guided missiles, are also discussed. Although the critic described the book as "an uneven work with good intentions," that "is not entirely successful in laying out either theory or evidence," he concluded that it "will be of interest to those who follow the RMA [revolutions in military affairs] debate. The book is an invaluable goad for thoughtful readers to think beyond the RMA bumper stickers and slogans Gray rightly condemns and to determine their own positions on the subject." Strategy and History makes Gray's case that strategists must learn military history, which is still relevant to today's conflicts. Parameters critic Stephen J. Blank praised this title as a reflection of "Gray's independence of mind, intellectual rigor, and willingness to challenge the political correctness or conventional wisdom of the time." Gray reiterated this position in his more recent War, Peace and International Relations: An Introduction to Strategic History.

Much of the debate occurring at the national and international level in the early twenty-first century has involved the United States' role as the world's leading military power. Two books by Gray that address this issue are The Sheriff and Another Bloody Century: Future Warfare. In the former, the author asserts, as many others have, that the United States should be involved in international conflicts in order to help insure political stability in the world. "Gray explains that ‘sheriff is of course a metaphor. By its use I mean to argue that the United States will act on behalf of others, as well as itself, undertaking some of the tough jobs of international security that no other agent or agency is competent to perform,’" reported Clark. Clark went on to note that this has been the aim of U.S. policy for some time, but that the country lost its focus, "particularly during the years of the Clinton administration." Asserting that The Sheriff "does not acknowledge that there are compelling arguments against a global sheriff," Air Power History critic John L. Cirafici wrote: "It is not that Gray is incorrect when he argues that America has a leading role to play in maintaining global stability. He may have missed the point, however, by not recognizing that stability arises from collective wisdom and global commitment to the ideal." Despite disagreeing with Gray's position, Cirafici recommended the book "for no other reason than [to understand] its perspective." Damon Coletta, writing in Parameters, felt that Gray's classical realism approach "can take us only so far" in understanding the current role of America's military, but concluded: "Taken as a whole, The Sheriff effectively demonstrates why traditional realism, geopolitics, and the cyclical view of history, after 2,500 years, retain their relevance."

Another Bloody Century offers Gray's look into the future of warfare, and he concludes that classic notions of war will remain applicable. "This is not to say that there is nothing new out there waiting for us. Quite on the contrary, strategic surprise is more than likely to occur. Strategic history is cyclical, but it does not repeat itself with high fidelity," explained a contributor to the Center for Security and International Studies Web site. The critic continued: "One of the central theses of Colin Gray's book is that irregular warfare, in the sense it is understood today, as the Global War on Terrorism for instance, or largely against low-intensity conflicts that spur within states is not the future of warfare. In fact, Gray argues that irregular warfare has a healthy future, but not as we imagine it today. His predictions indicate that terrorism is a faint threat that will run its course in the next two decades at the most, and then will see its decline." While disagreeing with "Gray's claim that war can only be controlled indirectly," such as through international law, the reviewer recommended Another Bloody Century as "definitely a ‘must read’ for any serious student or scholar of strategic and security studies, but it should also be remembered that no theory is without fallacy and that Gray's has some, too."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Air & Space Power Journal, winter, 2003, Gilles Van Nederveen, review of Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History.

Air Power History, fall, 2006, John L. Cirafici, review of The Sheriff: America's Defense of the New World Order.

American Political Science Review, September, 1991, John P. Lovell, review of War, Peace, and Victory: Strategy and Statecraft for the Next Century, p. 1084; March, 2000, Gregory Paul Domin, review of The Second Nuclear Age, p. 239.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1984, "Strategic Studies and Public Policy," p. 193.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December, 1983, "Strategic Studies and Public Policy: The American Experience," p. 42.

California Bookwatch, June, 2006, review of Another Bloody Century: Future Warfare.

Choice, March, 1993, R.A. Strong, review of House of Cards: Why Arms Control Must Fail, p. 1238; June, 1993, A.N. Sabrosky, review of Weapons Don't Make War: Policy, Strategy, and Military Technology, p. 1705; December, 1996, review of Explorations in Strategy, p. 688; January, 2000, D. McIntosh, review of The Second Nuclear Age, p. 1010; February, 2003, M.A. Morris, review of Strategy for Chaos, p. 1055; February, 2005, A.C. Tuttle, review of The Sheriff, p. 1094.

Comparative Strategy, January 1, 2005, C. Dale Walton, review of The Sheriff, p. 99; December, 2005, Stephen J. Cimbala, review of Another Bloody Century, p. 439.

Current History, May, 1983, "Strategic Studies and Public Policy," p. 220.

Emory International Law Review, spring, 1993, Bernard L. McNamee, review of House of Cards.

Encounter, June, 1988, review of The Geopolitics of Super Power, p. 57.

Ethics, October, 1983, "Strategic Studies: A Critical Assessment," p. 185.

Foreign Affairs, spring, 1984, "American Military Space Policy"; fall, 1988, Gregory F. Treverton, review of The Geopolitics of Super Power; summer, 1990, Lucy Edwards Despard, review of War, Peace, and Victory; summer, 1993, Eliot A. Cohen, review of Weapons Don't Make War; January, 2003, review of Strategy for Chaos, p. 163.

Historian, fall, 2005, Lorraine M. Lees, review of The Sheriff.

International Affairs, spring, 1989, "The Geo-Politics of Superpower"; January, 1994, Theo Farrell, review of Weapons Don't Make War, p. 134; July, 1995, Eric Grove, review of The Navy in the Post-Cold War World: The Uses and Value of Strategic Sea Power, p. 601; May, 2003, Paul Hirst, review of Strategy for Chaos, p. 652.

International History Review, May, 1996, Richard D. Challener, review of The Navy in the Post-Cold War World, p. 491; December, 2003, Geoffrey Blainey, review of Strategy for Chaos, p. 995.

International Journal, summer, 1993, review of The Leverage of Sea Power: The Strategic Advantage of Navies in War.

Joint Force Quarterly, July, 2005, Barry Watts, review of Strategy for Chaos, p. 109.

Journal of American History, June, 1989, review of The Geopolitics of Super Power, p. 313.

Journal of American Studies, August, 1989, review of The Geopolitics of Super Power, p. 329; August, 1989, review of The Geopolitics of Super Power, p. 330; December, 2005, Patrick Fagan, review of The Sheriff, p. 556.

Journal of Military History, October, 1990, Dean C. Allard, review of Seapower and Strategy, p. 491; January, 1992, William H. McNeill, review of War, Peace, and Victory, p. 123; October, 1993, Kenneth P. Werrell, review of Weapons Don't Make War, p. 749; October, 1995, Malcolm Muir, review of The Navy in the Post-Cold War World, p. 745.

Journal of Politics, May, 1989, review of The Geopolitics of Super Power, p. 456.

Library Journal, June 15, 1990, Richard Weitz, review of War, Peace, and Victory, p. 124; November 1, 1992, Harold N. Boyer, review of The Leverage of Sea Power, p. 102.

Military Law Review, spring, 1987, "Maritime Strategy, Geopolitics, and the Defense of the West."

National Interest, winter, 1992, Gideon Rose, review of House of Cards.

National Review, January 28, 1991, Ralph De Toledano, review of War, Peace, and Victory, p. 55; April 10, 2006, "A Brutal Constant," p. 48.

New Republic, September 29, 1986, Paul Kennedy, review of Nuclear Strategy and National Style, p. 38.

New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, fall, 1989, review of The Geopolitics of Super Power; spring, 1992, David Soskin, review of War, Peace, and Victory.

Orbis, spring, 1993, Bruce D. Berkowitz, review of House of Cards; spring, 1997, Michael P. Noonan, review of Explorations in Strategy.

Parameters, winter, 2000, Glen C. Collins, review of Modern Strategy; summer, 2005, Damon Coletta, review of The Sheriff; summer, 2007, Stephen J. Blank, review of Strategy and History: Essays on Theory and Practice.

Perspectives on Political Science, summer, 1997, James A. Huston, review of Explorations in Strategy.

Policy Review, winter, 1989, review of Nuclear Strategy and National Style.

Political Science Quarterly, fall, 1993, James J. Wirtz, review of Weapons Don't Make War; winter, 1995, Edward Rhodes, review of The Navy in the Post-Cold War World.

Political Studies, June, 2000, Tarak Barkawi, review of Modern Strategy, p. 668.

Prairie Schooner, fall, 1993, review of Weapons Don't Make War; winter, 1995, review of The Navy in the Post-Cold War World.

Publishers Weekly, May 18, 1990, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of War, Peace, and Victory, p. 72; May 24, 1991, review of War, Peace, and Victory, p. 56; October 12, 1992, review of The Leverage of Sea Power, p. 60.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 1990, review of Seapower and Strategy, p. 41; August, 1993, review of House of Cards, p. 26; November, 1999, review of The Second Nuclear Age, p. 206; February, 2000, review of Geopolitics, Geography, and Strategy, p. 111; February, 2003, review of Strategy for Chaos, p. 240; August, 2007, review of Fighting Talk: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, and Strategy; August, 2007, review of War, Peace and International Relations: An Introduction to Strategic History.

Science Books & Films, September, 1984, review of American Military Space Policy: Information Systems, Weapon Systems, and Arms Control, p. 11; July, 2000, review of The Second Nuclear Age, p. 156.

Survival, spring, 1994, Ivo H. Daalder, review of House of Cards.

Times Literary Supplement, March 9, 2001, Adam Roberts, review of Modern Strategy, p. 26; September 23, 2005, "After the Peace," p. 10.

Virginia Quarterly Review, winter, 1989, review of The Geopolitics of Super Power; summer, 2000, review of Modern Strategy.

Washington Monthly, July 1, 1990, Adam Yarmolinsky, review of War, Peace, and Victory, p. 58.

ONLINE

Center for Security and International Studies Web site,http://www.csis.ro/ (February 2, 2008), review of Another Bloody Century.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Web site,http://www.jhuapl.edu/ (February 2, 2008), faculty profile of Colin S. Gray.

Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College Web site,http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/ (February 2, 2008), brief biography of Colin S. Gray.

University of Reading Department of Politics and International Relations Web site,http://www.spirs.reading.ac.uk/ (February 2, 2008), faculty profile of Colin S. Gray.