Making Strategy

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Making Strategy
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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.

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National ObjectivesAn extension of a states
national interests

• 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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Grand Strategy

• Development use of ALL national power
  instruments and the coordination of these
  instruments
• A National Security Strategy For A New Century

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Grand Strategy

• Instruments of national power
• Political
• Military
• Economic
• Information

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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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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

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National Military Strategy

• Enhance our security with effective diplomacy and
  with military forces that are ready to fight and
  win
• Bolster America's economic prosperity
• Promote democracy and human rights abroad.

National Military Strategy 1997 (CJCS)
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National Military Strategy

• Shaping the International Environment
• Responding to the Full Spectrum of Crises
• Preparing Now for an Uncertain Future

SECDEF Annual Report to the President/Congress
2000
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Military Strategy

• Force development
• Resources required to get the job done
• Force deployment
• Requires airlift and sealift
• Force employment
• Decides when, where, what and how

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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 StrategyWhat 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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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
• the list goes on......

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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 are going to 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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If the world is to have ONE superpower, thank
God it is the United States of America -
Gen Khalid