Manifesting Awe: Grand Strategy and Imperial Leadership in the Ming Dynasty

This article examines recent theories concerning Chinese grand strategy and strategic culture in reference to China’s Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and evaluates their applicability in light of the actual policy choices and military activities pursued by Ming emperors and the types of military challenges they faced. It examines the entire scope of the dynasty to discern broad patterns and points of comparison while also highlighting the crucial importance of individual imperial agency in a despotic political system. It concludes that the Ming rulers did have a very straightforward overarching grand strategy, succinctly rendered as “manifesting awe,” and that this was in line not only with Chinese dynastic precedents, but quite similar to strategies deployed by contemporary monarchies around the globe.