Guest lecture
War and Power
- Date
- Wednesday 22 October 2025
- Time
- Explanation
- Registration starts at 16.00 hrs
- Address
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- 3.46
War and power are two of the most-widely discussed issues in all of human history, and yet they are, time and again, misunderstood — often disastrously so.
In his recently published book ‘War and Power – Who Wins Wars – and Why’ Professor Phillips Payson O’Brien demonstrates that the reality of modern conflict is very different from the common thinking about ‘Great Powers’ that dominate their opponents with their impressive size and military prowess. For if we are considering how powerful a nation is and who will win a war, we need to think less about weapons, and more about the economies and societies that produce them; less about individual battles, and more about sustaining campaigns and alliances in which states operate.
Prof O’Brien will present fascinating examples from the late 19th century to the present day how misunderstanding war and power has led to terrible, even preventable conflicts – such as the war in Ukraine – and how more accurate analysis can help us consider the potential conflict between the US and China.
Professor Frans Osinga will give a first reaction to Prof O’Briens lecture and then moderate a Q&A session with the audience.
About the speaker
Phillips Payson O'Brien (born 1963) is an American historian and professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
His books include How the War Was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II (2015), The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff (2019), The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler - How War Made Them and How They Made War (2024) and War and Power (2025). With Elliot Cohen he published a very influential report for CSIS The Russia-Ukraine War: A Study in Analytic Failure. Prof O’Brien regularly writes for Foreign Affairs and The Atlantic, and has his own substack Phillips’s Newsletter.