#STRATEGIC WAR SERIES#

Military strategy in the 19th century was still viewed as one of a trivium of 'arts' or 'sciences' that govern the conduct of warfare the others being tactics, the execution of plans and maneuvering of forces in battle, and logistics, the maintenance of an army. Put more shortly: strategy is the art of the conduct of war, tactics the art of fighting.' Background Tactics means the dispositions for, and control of, military forces and techniques in actual fighting.

#STRATEGIC WAR SERIES#

Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff and co-chairman of the Anglo-US Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee for most of the Second World War, described the art of military strategy as: 'to derive from the aim a series of military objectives to be achieved: to assess these objectives as to the military requirements they create, and the pre-conditions which the achievement of each is likely to necessitate: to measure available and potential resources against the requirements and to chart from this process a coherent pattern of priorities and a rational course of action.' Field-Marshal Montgomery summed it up thus 'Strategy is the art of distributing and applying military means, such as armed forces and supplies, to fulfil the ends of policy. Strategy may be divided into 'grand strategy', geopolitical in scope and 'military strategy' that converts the geopolitical policy objectives into militarily achievable goals and campaigns. NATO's definition of strategy is 'presenting the manner in which military power should be developed and applied to achieve national objectives or those of a group of nations. Military strategy involves using military resources such as people, equipment, and information against the opponent's resources to gain supremacy or reduce the opponent's will to fight, developed through the precepts of military science. It is larger in perspective than military tactics, which involves the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield, but less broad than grand strategy otherwise called national strategy, which is the overarching strategy of the largest of organizations such as the nation state, confederation, or international alliance and involves using diplomatic, informational, military and economic resources. Strategy, which is a subdiscipline of warfare and of foreign policy, is a principal tool to secure national interests. Military strategy is the planning and execution of the contest between groups of armed adversaries. Tactics is the art of organizing forces on or near the battlefield to secure objectives as part of the broader military strategy. Strategy differs from tactics, in that strategy refers to the employment of all of a nation's military capabilities through high level and long term planning, development, and procurement to guarantee security or victory. Chanakya's Arthashastra has been an important strategic and political compendium in Indian and Asian history as well. The Eastern military strategy differs from the Western by focusing more on asymmetric warfare and deception. It continues to influence many competitive endeavors in Asia, Europe, and America including culture, politics, and business, as well as modern warfare.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu grew in popularity and saw practical use in Western society as well. Sun Tzu (544–496 BC) is often considered as the father of Eastern military strategy and greatly influenced Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese historical and modern war tactics. Hence, both gave the pre-eminence to political aims over military goals. Liddell Hart's definition put less emphasis on battles, defining strategy as 'the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy'. The father of Western modern strategic studies, Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831), defined military strategy as 'the employment of battles to gain the end of war.' B.

Military strategy deals with the planning and conduct of campaigns, the movement and disposition of forces, and the deception of the enemy.

Derived from the Greek word strategos, the term strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the 'art of the general', or ''the art of arrangement' of troops. Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals.

Strategic war