Definitions of Grand Strategy, National Security Strategy, and Statecraft

Abstract

“ …the nation's plan for using all its instruments and resources of power to support its interests most effectively.” “ …the coordinated direction of all the resources, military and nonmilitary, of a nation (or alliance) to accomplish its objectives.” “ …the art and science of employing national power under all circumstances to exert desired degrees and types of control over the opposition through threats, force, indirect pressures, diplomacy, subterfuge, and other imaginative means, thereby satisfying national security interests and objectives. “‘Military strategy’ and ‘grand strategy’ are interrelated, but are by no means synonymous. Military strategy is predicated on physical violence or the threat of violence. It seeks victory through force of arms. Grand strategy, if successful, alleviates any need for violence. Equally important, it looks beyond victory toward a lasting peace. Military strategy is mainly the province of generals. Grand strategy is mainly the purview of statesmen. Grand strategy controls military strategy, which is only one of its elements.” “ …must be firmly rooted in broad national interests and objectives, supported by an adequate commitment of resources, and integrate all relevant facets of national power to achieve our national objectives.” “[grand strategy] …where all that is military happens within the much broader context of domestic governance, international politics, economic activity, and their ancillaries.” “ …at the level of grand strategy, the interactions of the lower, military levels …yield final results within the broad setting of international politics, in further interaction with the nonmilitary transactions of states: the formal exchanges of diplomacy, the public communications of propaganda, secret operations, the perceptions of others formed by intelligence official and unofficial, and all economic transactions of more than purely private significance.”