Alfred Thayer Mahan
Prophet of Sea Power
The American naval officer whose theories of sea power transformed global strategy. Mahan's ideas drove naval buildups from the United States to Japan and remain foundational to maritime strategic thinking.
Thinkers
The strategists and theorists — from Thucydides to Mearsheimer — whose ideas shaped how states understand power.
15 articles
Classical Theorists (pre-WWII)
Halford Mackinder
Father of Geopolitics
The British geographer who invented geopolitical analysis. Mackinder's Heartland Theory and vision of geography as the 'handmaid of statecraft' founded the field and shaped a century of strategic thinking.
Hans Morgenthau
Father of Modern Realism
The German-American scholar who founded the realist school of international relations, whose 'Politics Among Nations' established power as the central concept in the study of world politics and shaped how generations of scholars and practitioners understand international affairs.
Henry Kissinger
The Architect of Realpolitik
The most influential American diplomat of the twentieth century, whose practice of realpolitik, pursuit of detente, and opening to China reshaped the international order while generating enduring controversy about the moral costs of strategic pragmatism.
Kenneth Waltz
Architect of Structural Realism
The political scientist who transformed international relations theory with his structural approach, arguing that the anarchic international system—not human nature—explains why states compete for power and why war recurs despite its costs.
Nicholas Spykman
Architect of American Grand Strategy
The Dutch-American scholar who reframed Mackinder's Heartland thesis and provided the intellectual foundation for American containment strategy. Spykman's Rimland theory shaped Cold War geopolitics.
Thucydides
The Father of Political Realism
The ancient Athenian historian whose account of the Peloponnesian War established the foundations of realist thought, introducing concepts of power politics, the security dilemma, and the tragic inevitability of great power conflict that continue to shape international relations theory.
Modern Strategists (post-WWII)
Alexander Dugin
The controversial Russian philosopher whose neo-Eurasianist ideology and 'Fourth Political Theory' provide intellectual foundations for Russian expansionism, rejection of Western liberalism, and the vision of a multipolar world order centered on civilizational blocs.
Carl Schmitt
The German jurist whose concepts of the friend-enemy distinction, the state of exception, and political theology have profoundly influenced how scholars understand sovereignty, conflict, and the nature of politics—despite his collaboration with the Nazi regime.
Francis Fukuyama
The political scientist who declared 'the end of history' with the triumph of liberal democracy, whose thesis defined post-Cold War optimism and whose subsequent work has grappled with the challenges that have complicated but not refuted his original argument.
George Kennan
The American diplomat whose 'Long Telegram' and 'X Article' defined the strategy of containment that guided US Cold War policy. Kennan later became a critic of the very policies he inspired.
John Mearsheimer
The leading proponent of offensive realism, whose predictions about great power competition and NATO expansion have made him one of the most discussed—and controversial—international relations scholars of our time.
Robert Keohane
The political scientist who demonstrated that international cooperation is possible even in an anarchic world, whose work on international institutions and regimes provided the theoretical foundation for understanding how states can overcome collective action problems through rules, norms, and organizations.
Samuel Huntington
The Harvard political scientist whose 'Clash of Civilizations' thesis predicted that post-Cold War conflict would occur along cultural and religious fault lines, sparking debates about identity, Islam, and the future of Western civilization that continue to shape discourse today.
Zbigniew Brzezinski
The Polish-American strategist who shaped American Cold War policy and articulated the enduring importance of Eurasia. Brzezinski's 'Grand Chessboard' remains essential reading for understanding great power competition.