The lost meaning of strategy (original) (raw)
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Security & Defence Quarterly, 2021
Strategy is a category of growing importance in contemporary scientific debate. “Strategy” as a concept is derived from military thought, but it has become popular in many areas of expertise in recent decades. This term can be found in professional literature in the field of military science, political studies, psychology, economics and management. It is therefore worth taking a look at a book that explains the classical understanding of this concept. The book reviewed here is positioned in the area of strategic studies and war and conflict studies. The review will look at the structure and content of this publication, as well as assess its usefulness in scholarly and didactic practice.
On Strategy - Part I: Discovering National Strategy
The Naval Review, 2015
The first in a series of four articles, the author examines some of the pitfalls and issues facing modern strategists, whether military or civilian. He begins with an exploration of strategy through its evolution, definitions, and some of the tensions in the politico-military continuum. He uncovers causes of friction in the remarkable trinity of passion, chance and reason, and identifies sources of evidence to aid us in our education.
2021
Strategy is a category of growing importance in contemporary scientific debate. “Strategy” as a concept is derived from military thought, but it has become popular in many areas of expertise in recent decades. This term can be found in professional literature in the field of military science, political studies, psychology, economics and management. It is therefore worth taking a look at a book that explains the classical understanding of this concept. The book reviewed here is positioned in the area of strategic studies and war and conflict studies. The review will look at the structure and content of this publication, as well as assess its usefulness in scholarly and didactic practice.
The Student Strategy & Security Journal (3SJ), 2020
The concept of 'strategy' is making a remarkable comeback in the 21 st century, as balance-of-power politics is being played again, this time truly at the global level. This essay investigates the genesis of 'Strategy with a capital "S"' in the writings of Jomini and Clausewitz in the first half of the nineteenth century and the dynamics of its theoretical interpretation and practical application from the Napoleonic Era to today. It does so by applying the '4 As' of interpretive hermeneutics-prefigurative Alignment, configurative Application, refigurative Adaptation and transformative Articulation-to this iterative investigation of Jomini's and Clausewitz's work. This methodology results in the emergence, from the interstices of their competing and complementary approaches to War and Strategy, of a three-dimensional concept of 'Strategy' aligning Policy Process, Power Praxis and Political Purpose. It also gives rise to a corresponding analytical framework of the deployment of 'Strategy' in various spatio-temporal environments, that combines various leadership modalities with a full continuum of conflictual systems. This essay concludes by arguing that both these elements of the Strategy-as-practice toolkit remain remarkably current and eminently applicable to the rapidly evolving geopolitical ecosystem of the 21 st century. (190 words)
Texas National Security Review, 2020
The use of strategic theory to support the practice of the use of military force was the subject of many of Colin's books, articles, and lectures. Strategy must convert policy from ideas and objectives into the use or threat of military force. It is this conversion that I will examine here through Colin's works, my conversations with him, and my experience teaching his works to my students. An understanding of Clausewitz and Thucydides is fundamental to Colin's approach to strategy. He succeeded in developing strategic theory from their practical methods, creating the concept of strategic history almost single-handedly. 1 As a practitioner, he sought to provide the firmest of foundations for those charged with the conversion of policy into the use of force. My students have occasionally suggested to me that Colin's work is complex and difficult to comprehend. Indeed, in a paper titled Defining and Achieving Decisive Victory, Colin wrote that his own "dense prose" was perhaps too forbidding for non-academics. 2 Some reviewers have criticized his work for the same fault. 3 Many of the concepts with which he wrestled require sophisticated language to fully express their complexity. Despite this, to paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, the knowledge gained is certainly worth the effort necessary to understand the full breadth and depth of Colin's work. The Use of History Colin argued that the theory of strategy should be taught and understood, while maintaining that the process of designing and creating strategy itself was unteachable. "Strategists cannot be trained, but they can be educated." 5 Strategic theory is there to guide the strategist, but the
Introduction to 'Strategy and Politics'
Historical Materialism, 2020
In the following article, I situate Daniel Bensaïd's 'Strategy and Politics' within the different phases of his thinking about strategy as well as his own general theoretical background that informs parts of the text.