Making Strategy

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Making Strategy
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Samples of Behavior

• List, in order, the five steps in the strategy
  process
• State how a nation determines its national
  objectives
• Identify external factors that influence the
  strategy process

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War is an extension of politics by other means.
Carl von Clausewitz
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Making Strategy

• National Objectives
• Grand Strategy
• Military Strategy
• Operational Strategy
• Battlefield Strategy
• Influences on the Strategy Process

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National Objectives

• The fundamental aims, goals, or purposes of a
  nation toward which a policy is directed, and
  efforts resources are applied.

6
National Objectives

• Vital broad, overriding importance to the
  survival, safety and vitality of our nation
• State is not willing to compromise on
• State is generally willing to go to war to
  protect

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National Objectives

• Major (important) interests - these effect our
  national well-being
• Halt flow of Haitian refugees
• NATO Operations in Bosnia/Kosovo
• Assistance in East Timor

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National Objectives

• Peripheral (humanitarian and other)-our nation
  may act because our values demand it
• Response to disasters
• Human rights violations
• De-mining
• Environmental protection

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National Objectives

• Interests are often intertwined
• Vietnam?
• Iraq?
• Bosnia?
• Kosovo?

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National Objectives
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Grand Strategy

• Instruments of national power
• Diplomatic (Political)
• Information
• Military
• Economic

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Grand Strategy Players

• President
• Greatest influence on international relations
• Congress
• Primary check vs the President
• National media
• Interest groups
• Public opinion

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National Objectives
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Military Strategy

• The art and science of coordinating the
  development, deployment, and employment of
  military forces to achieve national security
  objectives.
• National Military Strategy (JCS)
• SECDEF Report to President and Congress

EXAMPLES Strategic Defense Initiative (Star
Wars) Missile Defense (IDO 1Oct 04)
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National Military Strategy

• Traditional challenges
• Irregular challenges
• Catastrophic challenges
• Disruptive challenges

National Security Strategy 2006
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National Objectives
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Operational Strategy

• The art and science of planning, orchestrating,
  and directing military campaigns within a theater
  of operations to achieve national security
  objectives.

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Operational Strategy
What does it do ?

• Links the national level concerns of military
  strategy with battlefield concerns of tactics
• Levels of operational strategy
• Joint campaigns
• Combined campaigns
• Component campaigns

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Operational Strategy

• Orchestration of all military efforts in the
  theater
• Goal is to win the theater war
• Achieve the military objective
• Military objective contributes to the
  achievement of a political objective

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Operational Strategy

• Campaigns must be appropriate to the situation
  Vietnam
• Linebacker II - 11 day bombing campaign in Dec
  1972 had a specific politico-military objective
• Many victories but to little avail
• Contrast American Revolution
• Few victories but won independence

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Operational Strategy

• Outcome Campaign Plan
• Situation briefly describe situation plan
  addresses
• Mission state the tasks of each component
  command and the purpose to achieving the
  strategic objectives
• Execution concept, objectives, missions,
  phases, timing etc.
• Administration Logistics campaign sustainment
  concept
• Command, Control, Communications command
  relationships, communications plan (time zones,
  rendezvous, recognition, codes, etc.)

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Operational Strategy

• From there he moved into a discussion of
  objectives-first presidential, then military. He
  made certain the commander was aware of the
  deliberate links between the military and
  presidential objectives and their relationship to
  the campaign in general. He made no mention of
  the fact that the presidential objectives were
  nothing more than selected segments of White
  House news releases and recent presidential
  speeches that the Checkmate planners had pieced
  together. The strategy behind these objectives
  was elegant in its simplicity.

You have restored my confidence in the United
States Air Force! Youre the first guys that have
been leaning forward. This is exactly what I
want!
Gen H. Norman Schwarzkopf
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National Objectives
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Battlefield Strategy (Tactics)

• The art and science of employing forces on the
  battlefield to achieve national security
  objectives.

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Battlefield Strategy (Tactics)

• Very dynamic level of operations
• Virtually impossible to talk about in general
  terms
• nuclear war
• operations other than war
• conventional war
• space war
• information war
• amphibious assaults
• desert war ......

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National Objectives
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Influences on the Process

• Who makes the decisions
• Domestic politics
• International politics
• Fog, friction, chance
• Doctrine
• The driving force behind our operational and
  battlefield strategy
• Media
• Reverse Flow Feedback System

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Points to Remember

• National objectives drive the process
• An extension of vital national interests
• Grand Strategy incorporates and/or coordinates
  all the instruments of national power
• Military Strategy supports national objectives
• Must support higher strategy
• Operational and Battlefield Strategy must be
  flexible
• Several influences on the strategy process

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• Chances are you will meet people who do not
  understand their day-to-day mission
• Making the connection between day-to-day
  operations and national objectives is tough, but
  essential

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