The Great Military Theorist, Carl Von Clausewitz - 2066 Words

The great military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz, defines strategy narrowly as â€Å"the use of an engagement for the purposes of the war.† More broadly, Clausewitz implies that strategy is the application of ways and means to achieve the desired ends in war. Thus, strategy is the mechanism for connecting war to policy. However, the National Security Strategy (NSS) clearly states, â€Å"a smart national security strategy does not rely solely on military power.† Therefore, the NSS is not a Clausewiztian military strategy but what B.H. Liddell Hart describes as grand strategy, or â€Å"policy in execution,† whose goal is to â€Å"marshal all the resources of a nation† towards achieving a political objective. By its reliance on â€Å"all elements of our national strength,† the NSS can therefore be described as a grand strategy. The NSS is clear in its reliance on â€Å"all elements of our national strength,† as a whole-of-government approach to achieving US strategic ends that coordinates the nation’s diplomatic, information, military, and economic (DIME) power. It is a strategy that requires significant non-military ways and means. Therefore, the answer to the question of whether the Department of Defense (DoD), as the embodiment of the nation’s military power, has sufficient ways and means to meet this strategy’s prescribed ends, the answer must be no. At its heart, as stated in the summary, the strategic goal of the NSS is to â€Å"ensure the safety of the American people and advance our nationalShow MoreRelatedThe Great Military Theorist Carl Von Clausewitz2411 Words   |  10 Pages LIBERTY UNIVERSITY MANY ARGUE THAT AMERICA GENERALLY ENTERS A WAR UNPREPARED. DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS THESIS OR NOT? 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Indeed, Strachan argues that the use of the word strategy by government authoritiesRead MoreInternational Conference On World War II1967 Words   |  8 Pagesconcerning the two different strategies. Dr. Cirillo is unmistakably an admirer of British military thinking and how the war may have been influenced by concentrating allied efforts on German centers of gravity, as proposed by Montgomery. Obviously dismissive of the larger U.S. objectives and perhaps narrow-mindedly taking strong opposition to Eisenhower’s broad-front strategy given his British military school training, Dr. Cirillo’s criticism of Eisenhower fails to a ccount for the positive effectsRead MoreThe Effectiveness of Nuclear Weapons for Deterrence Essay examples2012 Words   |  9 Pagesunderstand how the Cold War sparked a changed in military strategic thinking which then led to the development of evolution strategy. It will be concluded that the notion of ‘more may be better’ does not necessarily prevent conflicts using nuclear weapons from occurring. To understand the causes of war and the transformation between traditional warfare into modern warfare, key concepts that allowed this to occur need to be explained. Carl von Clausewitz famous for writing On The Nature Of War inRead MoreStrategic Management Process12814 Words   |  52 PagesStrategy, he developed the gap analysis still used today in which we must understand the gap between where we are currently and where we would like to be, then develop what he called â€Å"gap reducing actions†.[6] Peter Drucker was a prolific strategy theorist, author of dozens of management books, with a career spanning five decades. His contributions to strategic management were many but two are most important. Firstly, he stressed the importance of objectives. An organization without clear objectives