Statecraft by Jack Watling - ISBN: 9781035059065
Paperback
Understand global power struggles: from battlefields to political high-stakes.

Statecraft

The New Rules of Power in a Divided World

  • Paperback

    368 pages

  • Release Date

    24 March 2026

Summary

Packed with gripping first-hand accounts from the battlefield to high-level strategic forums, Statecraft gives you the tools to understand how states collaborate, compete and fight.

Why did Russia struggle in the early months of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Why does Israel repeatedly ignore international pressure on Gaza? Why does the UK spend billions on aircraft carriers it struggles to support at sea? How do smaller states shape world events when dwarfed by superpowers?

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781035059065
ISBN-10:1035059061
Author:Jack Watling
Publisher:Pan Macmillan
Imprint:Macmillan
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:368
Release Date:24 March 2026
Weight:452g
Dimensions:233mm x 153mm x 28mm
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Critics Review

‘Gripping … packed with fascinating detail … ranges from first-person reportage from the trenches of Ukraine to analysis of the chokepoints in the world economy, including the Strait of Hormuz’ – Financial TimesAn indispensable book on strategy – brilliantly grounded in first-hand experience and telling detail. [Statecraft is] blunt about the failures and structural defects in policy [and] thoughtful, serious and compelling – Rory Stewart, bestselling author of Politics on the EdgeJack Watling has rewritten Clausewitz for the modern world, using stories and taking lessons from Ukraine to Mali to Taiwan. Anyone interested in geopolitics should read it – Anne Applebaum, bestselling author of Autocracy, Inc

Through narrative and analysis, Statecraft explores the key factors that decide success or failure in resolving conflict or chaos. Jack Watling draws on his own stories to weave a narrative that gets underneath events – from Afghanistan to Ukraine – with which we might be familiar, but through this book, can better understand.Statecraft is an astonishing book, full of stories and details, drawn from Jack Watling’s unique experience from the front line in conflict zones all over the world. Through it, we are able to evaluate what determines success and failure, and how we might better prepare for an uncertain future.

– Rt Hon Baroness Catherine Ashton LG GCMG‘While Statecraft is a detailed, often surgical, book, its overall effect is therapeutic. Reading it one can start to imagine a road map through the crazy car crashes of the post-rules-based world, and how we can unite the disparate tools we still possess to truly take back control’ – The Spectator

About The Author

Jack Watling

Jack Watling is Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He works closely with the British, Ukrainian and American military, and advises governments on security and strategy. He was formally a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington DC and is the author of Arms of the Future: Technology and Close Combat in the Twenty-First Century. Originally a journalist he has contributed to Reuters, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and the Guardian, among others.

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