Teaching Strategy in the 21st Century (Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 52, 1st Quarter 2009)
Abstract
With a good strategy, even the weak can succeed; with a weak strategy, even the strong will struggle. Strategy is, and will continue to be, the linchpin to military success. Unfortunately, professional military education (PME) does not develop strategists very well. The war colleges are the proper institutions to take on the task, even though their current approaches are more descriptive than prescriptive in teaching strategy. Strategy is stratified roughly according to the major participants within each partition: grand strategy (and its scion national security strategy) is artful and the purview of kings and Presidents; military strategy, while subservient and linked to grand strategy, is more mechanical and has its roots in military science; tactics, which also stem from military science, are quite prescribed and situation-specific and belong to the military-in particular, the company grade ranks. Somewhere along the line we get theater and/or campaign strategy, which we attribute to the generals and, eventually, operational art. This partitioning is comfortable, perhaps because it is attuned to modern Western idealistic portrayals of the division of labor between civilian political and military leadership, and even between domestic and foreign policy. This approach is nicely suited for teaching about strategy. However, it is not reflective of the real world and may be a dysfunctional, self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, by partitioning the definition so carefully into levels to serve theoretical or academic purposes, we come to believe that strategy is actually partitioned in that manner in the real world-and thus treat grand strategy, military strategy, theater strategy, campaign strategy, and even tactics as separate and distinct when they actually are similar and can be researched and taught by way of their similarities rather than against a backdrop of assumed divisions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA515184
Entities
People
- Gabriel Marcella
- Stephen O. Fought
Organizations
- National Defense University