TSDM-8
Strategy
Source: NWC Faculty edited by Dr. Coty Keller
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Relevance?
“Future joint force commanders will not make
grand strategy, but they must fully understand
the ends it seeks to achieve. They will have a role
in suggesting how the Joint Force might be used
and the means necessary for the effective use of
joint forces to protect the interests of the United
States.”
- Source: Joint Forces Command, The Joint Operating
Environment 2010, p. 11.
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What is Your Definition
of Strategy?
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Thoughts on Strategy
“the art of the general”
Strategy is the use of engagements for the object of war.
– Carl von Clausewitz
He who attempts to defend everything defends nothing.
– Frederick the Great
Strategy is the art of controlling and utilizing the resources of a
nation.
– Edward Mead Earle
Strategy is the product of the dialogue between policy and
national power.
– Colin Gray
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Core Questions for the
Strategist
Where do we want to go or what are the
desired ends?
How do we achieve our ends or what are the
ways?
What resources are available or what are the
available means?
What type of risk is the country willing to
assume?
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Bartlett Donut
STRATEGY
MEANS
ENDS
Ways
RISK
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Intensity of Interests
Vital
– If unfulfilled, will have immediate consequences for
core interests
Important
– If unfulfilled, will result in damage that will
eventually affect core national interests
Peripheral
– If unfilled, will result in damage that is unlikely to
affect core national interests
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Link Ends, Ways, and Means
National Objectives
(Ends)
Strategic Concepts
(Ways)
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National Power
(Means)
Identifying Ends
Enduring National Interests
– Ensure the security of the state and its people
– Establish a stable and secure region
Democratic National Interests
– Promote the prosperity of the people
– Encourage human security
– Advance democratic institutions
Product of national decision-makers
– Guarantee environmental security
– Promote democracy
– Establish free trade zones
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The Afghanistan Strategy
(ENDS)
“Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle,
and defeat al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its
capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future.”
• To meet that goal, we will pursue the following objectives within
Afghanistan:
• We must deny al Qaeda a safe haven.
• We must reverse the Taliban's momentum and deny it the
ability to overthrow the government.
• And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan's
security forces and government so that they can take lead
responsibility for Afghanistan's future.
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Specifying Ways
How do we achieve our ends?
Strategic concepts
– An end-to-end stream of activities that defines how
elements, systems, organizations and tactics
combine to accomplish national objectives or tasks.
How something might be done
Consider Feasibility, Suitability, and
Acceptability
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The Afghanistan Strategy
(WAYS)
• First, we will pursue a military strategy that will break the Taliban's
momentum and increase Afghanistan's capacity over the next 18
months.
- Target insurgents and protect key population centers (Marja)
- Build ANSF: Karzai’s goal is for ANSF take the lead
within 3-5 years
- Work with allies (NATO)
• Second, we will work with our partners, the United Nations, and the
Afghan people to pursue a more effective civilian strategy, so that the
government can take advantage of improved security.
• Third, we will act with the full recognition that our success in
Afghanistan is inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan.
Committing Means
“In my era, even if commanders produced good
strategies at their level (and I believe we did),
with good ends and reasonable ways to achieve
them, we still had no idea whether or not the
administration and the Congress would come
through with the means.”
– General Tony Zinni, former commander of US forces in
the Near East, Central Asia, and East Africa
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Elements of National Power
TOOLS OF NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY
MILITARY
INFORMATION
DIPLOMATIC
LEGAL
Diplomatic Recognition
Review Decisions of
National/Multinational
Legal Organizations
War
Public Diplomacy
Nuclear Warfare
Public Policy
Statements
Representation
Public Affairs/
Press Releases
Negotiation
Conventional Warfare
Forcible Entry
Strikes/Raids
Unconventional Warfare
Coercion/
Compellence/
Deterrence
Show of Force/
Freedom of
Navigation Operations
Deploy Carrier
Battle Group
Blockade
Diplomatic Demarches
Advocacy
Print, Electronic
and Film
Information
Operations
Military Operations
Other Than War/
Peace Support
Operations
Intimidation
Non-Combatant
Evacuation Ops (NEO)
Extradition
Military Deception
Consensus Building
Stationing and
Overflight Rights
Computer Network
Operations
Restrict Diplomatic
Activities
Electronic Warfare
Recall Ambassador
Public Affairs
Operations Security
Break Diplomatic
Relations
Embassy Draw
Down/NEO/Total
Evacuation
Humanitarian Assistance
Sct’y Assistance/
Mil-Mil Contacts
Nation Building
Homeland Security
Military Assistance
to Civil Authorities
Customary
International Law
Coalition Building
Psychological Ops
Arms Control
Peace Enforcement/
Peacekeeping
UN Security
Council
Resolutions
Signaling
Upgrade Alert Status
Overseas Presence
Treaty Compliance
Coordination with
International Organizations and NGOs
International Law
Enforcement
INTELLIGENCE
FINANCE
ECONOMIC
Knowledge
Fiscal Policy
Trade Policy
Analyzed Information
Activity
Collection of
Information
Exchange of
Intelligence
Information
with Other States/
Multinational Orgns
External Training
Covert/Paramilitary
Activity
International
Monetary Fund /
World Bank
Debt Forgiveness
Taxes in Support of
Elements of Power
Borrowing for
Expenditures
Subsidy in Support
of National Policy
Freeze/Seize
Monetary Assets
Monetary Policy
Exchange Rates
Trade Promotion
Trade Sanctions
Trade Alliances
Economic
Development
Embargoes
Foreign Aid
Technology
Controls
Regulation
Environmental
The Afghanistan Strategy
(MEANS)
• 30,000 additional U.S. forces (Total: 98,000 by August
2010)
• ISAF includes 43 nations
• ANSF:
• Current Goal: 134 K (ANA) and 109 K (ANP) by Oct
2010
• “Civilian Surge”
• Partners, including the UN
• Pakistan
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What are the
Levels of Strategy?
Grand Strategy
Military Strategy
Theater Strategy
Service Strategy
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Grand Strategy
The art and science of developing and
employing the instruments of national power
in a synchronized and integrated fashion to
achieve objectives.
Strategy is about how leadership can use the
power available to the state to exercise
control over people, places, things, and
events to achieve objectives in accordance
with national interests and policies.
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Instruments of National Power
Diplomatic
Informational
Military
Economic
“DIME”
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SECDEF in Kansas
"We must focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of the
military, beyond just our brave soldiers, sailors, marines and
airmen," he said. "We must also focus our energies on the
other elements of national power that will be so crucial in the
years to come.“
One priority is money, Gates said. He called for "a dramatic
increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national
security: diplomacy, strategic communications, foreign
assistance, civic action and economic reconstruction and
development.“
SECDEF, Kansas State (26 Nov 2007)
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Importance of Theater Strategy
“Since regional problems now dominate
security issues, the primary contribution
towards attaining U.S. national, defense, and
military strategy by the Department of
Defense (DoD) is at the theater level through
the combatant commander’s theater
strategy.”
Lt Col Clarence Bouchet, p. 1
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Theater Strategy
Concepts and courses of action directed
toward securing the objectives of national and
multinational policies and strategies through
the synchronized and integrated employment
of military forces and other instruments of
national power.
JP 5-0
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Theater Security Cooperation
Activity Examples
Military contacts
National assistance
– FID, HA/DR
Combined training
Combined exercises
Multinational education
Arms control and treaty monitoring
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Levels of Strategy
Grand Strategy
National Policy
Strategic Level
Military Strategy
Theater Strategy
Campaigns
Operational Level
Theater Strategy
Major Operations
Battles
Tactical Level
Service Strategy
– Advances specific strategic concepts
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Engagements
Small Unit and
Crew Action
Risk
Force Management Risks
– Sustain people, equipment and infrastructure
Operational Risks
– Ability of the force to accomplish mission
Future Challenges Risks
– Investments to deal effectively with military challenges in the
future
Institutional Risks
– Remedying inefficient processes that jeopardize the ability to
use resources efficiently
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Strategy  Guidance  Plans
PRESIDENT
National Security
Strategy
SECDEF/CJCS
National Defense
and Military
Strategies
Guidance for Employment of the Force
SECDEF
Campaign
Planning
Guidance
CJCS
COMBATANT
COMMANDERS
*Approved by the President
Contingency
Planning
Guidance*
Nuclear
Weapons
Employment
Guidance
Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan
COCOM
Strategies
COCOM
COCOM
Contingency
Campaign
Plans
Plans
SecDef Plan IPRs
-----------SecDef-directed
activities and
IA collaboration
25
UNCLASSIFIED
Consolidating Strategic Planning Process & Documents
National Security Strategy (NSS)
National Defense Strategy (NDS)
National Military Strategy (NMS)
Employ
Manage
Develop
the Force
the Force
the Force
Guidance for Employment
Guidance for Development
of the Force (GEF)
of the Force (GDF) / (Now DPPG)
Joint Strategic Capabilities
Plan (JSCP)
TransforStrategic
Global
Human
Contingency
Planning
Guidance
Security
Cooperation
Guidance
Global
Force Mgmt
Guidance
Global
Posture
Guidance
Nuclear
Weapons
Planning
Guidance
Planning
Guidance
mation
Planning
Guidance
Analytic
Agenda
Guidance
Posture
Guidance
Joint
Concepts &
Experiment.
Guidance
Capital
Strategy
Science &
Technology
Guidance
Unified Command Plan
Global Force Mgmt (GFM) Guidance Document
CJCS Risk
Assessment
UNCLASSIFIED
Deliberative document. Draft working papers, not subject to FOIA release.
UNCLASSIFIED 26
Assessment
“However beautiful the strategy,
you should occasionally look at
the results.”
Winston Churchill
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Evaluating Grand Strategy
Are the desired ends appropriate?
What assumptions are made about the security environment?
What are the strategic priorities?
STRATEGY
How are tools of national power balanced?
What are the means required?
MEANS
ENDS
What impact will there be on resources?
What are the perceived mismatches?
What are the risks?
Ways
RISK
What are the challenges associated with selling the
strategy?
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Is Strategy a “Lost Art”? Here’s
One Man’s Opinion
• American strategy — strategy, the idea that in war the ways and
means to carry it out should be employed considering alternatives
and with the least cost of blood and treasure to achieve policy goals
— is dead. The slayer of American strategy is counterinsurgency
tactics. Thanks to the American Army’s embrace of
counterinsurgency, what we are left with is a strategy of tactics.
• Counterinsurgency has defined a new American Way of War. More
than that, the doctrine of counterinsurgency has become the
language and grammar of the current American war in Afghanistan.
American Generals and politicians speak in the language of
counterinsurgency tactics. Phrases like “protecting” or “shielding
the Afghan people,” or “clear, hold, build” are all drawn from the
tactics of counterinsurgency.
- Source: COL Gian Gentile, “The Death of American Strategy,” Infinity
Journal, Issue 3, Summer 2011
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War Collegeimportant/relevant?
Do you agree? Why
is strategy
Key Takeaways
Strategy is a function of the interrelationship among ends,
ways, means, and the security environment. Potential
mismatches create risks. If the risks resulting from an endsways-means mismatch cannot be managed, ends must be
reevaluated and scaled back, means must be increased, or the
strategy must be adjusted.
The strategy maker can never ignore fiscal constraints. Indeed,
political reality sometimes dictates that budgetary limits will
constitute the primary influence on the development of strategy
and force structure. Additionally, bureaucratic and
organizational imperatives play a major role in force structure
choices.
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Key Takeaways (Cont)
Strategy is designed to secure national interests and to attain
the objectives of national policy by the application of national
tools, including the military. Strategy is dynamic, changing as
the factors that influence it change. As strategic requirements
evolve, the strategy must also change.
In practice, strategic decisions must always compete with the
demands of domestic politics or what Samuel Huntington has
called "structural decisions." These are choices "made in the
currency of domestic politics." For the military, the most
important structural decision concerns the "size and distribution
of funds made available to the armed forces....
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