Welcome to AGS!

American Grand Strategy (AGS) is an interdisciplinary initiative across Duke University that creates and shares new knowledge in the grand strategy field. The program’s mission is to prepare the next generation of strategists by studying past generations and interacting with current strategic leaders.   We are building a research community of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates who are committed to deepening their understanding of America’s role in the world – past, present and future.

AGS hosts The Ambassador Dave and Kay Phillips Family International Lecture series: endowed for the purpose of bringing prominent figures in international security, foreign policy, and diplomacy to Duke University in order to engage with students, faculty, and the larger Duke community about issues of international importance. Contemporary leaders who have attended include, Mitt Romney, Stephen Hadley, Ray Odierno, Karl Eikenberry, David Petraeus, Karl Rove, Howard Dean, Condoleezza Rice, Martin Dempsey, Robert Gates, and Fareed Zakaria.

AGS offers students access to leading strategists and broad learning opportunities such as the Summer Fellowship Program and service on the AGS Council.

Staff Ride to Europe | Spring 2018

The Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy hosts ambitious ‘Staff Rides’ where students role play military and war-period characters alongside faculty and military experts to learn the stakes of war. Led by Professor Peter Feaver, students debate strategy from the perspective of embroiled contemporaries of war to learn the trust costs and sacrifices of leadership.

“The staff ride was created in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars by the Prussians, the perfectors of European military strategy and training. They would walk the battlefields of previous wars, observe the terrain and have officers research and take the roles of various commanders and political leaders on all sides. An officer would then present their characters’ personal history, their plans for the conflict, as well as their actions during it. The other participants then adopt their characters’ roles and counter or question the presenter’s arguments in order to point out disagreements, mistakes, or good strategies. Staff rides are invaluable because they help the participants to understand not just who fought there and when, but what was planned, what ended up occurring, why they these events occurred, and how these events fit into the broader context of political or geopolitical issues.” – Adam Lemon, American Grand Strategy Alumnus

This year in mid-March, nearly 40 Duke AGS undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members and alumni trekked across Belgium and France for the World War I End Game Staff Ride. Duke produced an incredible photo story featuring our time abroad entitled “Learning on the Battlefield.” Click here to check it out!

Winter Forum | January 2018

“Duke University launched the Spring 2018 semester with Winter Forum for 89 students that had them imagine themselves as U.S. foreign policy aids working through a potentially dangerous crisis with China.” -Ray Gronberg, The Herald Sun

Read more and watch the event video here!