LESSON 1
GRAND STRATEGY: THEORY AND PRACTICE
“The roots of victory and defeat often have to be sought far from the
battlefield, in political, social, and economic factors, which explain why
armies are constituted as they are, and why their leaders conduct them in
the way they do.”
⎯Michael Howard, noted author and
editor of Clausewitz’s On War
Lesson Introduction
Strategic Studies is a relatively new discipline; it only became a serious academic subject
as a sub-field of International Relations scholarship in the 1950s. Beforehand, strategy
was the province of primarily military officers, and only a handful of those officers
explored the full political-military dimension of strategy as a concept. As such, the
"idea" of strategy and strategic thinking confronts the student and strategist alike with
many problems, not the least of which is the rapidly evolving nature of the concept itself
and the influence of "real world" events on its development. Nevertheless, the subject is
of extreme importance because it is concerned with issues of the utmost significance at
the national and international level. In that regard, strategy has always been intimately
connected with planning wars and fighting them, but strategy is much more.
Fundamentally, strategy is about how states use power—in a military, economic,
diplomatic, or other manner—to achieve political objectives. It therefore cannot be
repeated too often that military power is but one means among many to achieve political
ends. As a result, purely military definitions of strategy have virtually disappeared
because they fail to encompass the scope of strategic thinking. Nevertheless, although
strategy is as much about peace as it is about war, it is generally recognized that, if we
fail to properly manage the former, we must be prepared to execute the latter.
This lesson is designed to help you understand the nature of strategic thinking and how
that translates into the development and execution of strategy. Thus, you will gain a
better understanding of how operational planning and execution is linked to strategy and
policy at the highest levels in our government. Also, this lesson will promote your
understanding of how, to a great extent, operational planning and its execution shapes the
profession of arms to which each of you belong.
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