

Photo: Regina Schmeken
Photo: Regina Schmeken
Ideas
Memories of the past shape the choices of nations in the present.
First published in The Atlantic on June 2, 2025
by Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic
June 5, 2025 | reading time: 6 Min.
I have taught strategy in war colleges in the United States and other countries. Like most instructors, I describe strategy as an endeavor that strives to match ends and means in a rational way, a dialogue between soldiers and politicians seeking to use force for political purposes. That is certainly what the senior officers who attend such institutions believe.