A few weeks ago Norwich University was kind enough to publish, on its “Voices on Peace and War” blog, my piece “Grand Strategy Ottoman: Providing Valuable COIN Lessons to America.” (Special thanks to LTC Yangmo Ku, PhD, for arranging this.) Therein I draw upon my latest book, The COIN of the Islamic Realm: Insurgencies & the Ottoman Empire, 1416-1916, for examples of how the Turkish empire waged counter-insurgency in its domains while also often navigating Great Power competition with, for example, the Safavid and, later, British empires.

In a similar vein, although admittedly more speculatively, about this time last year I published an article entitled “How Middle-earth Can Help Us Deal with the Middle Kingdom.” In it I looked at the grand strategy of the leaders of the West in The Lord of the Rings in terms of how they eventually defeated Sauron’s bid for conquest of Middle-earth–and whether that provides any guidance as to how the West should deal with the rising power of Communist China.

We can probably learn more from the Ottoman Empire than from Gondor–but why not take a look at both?