Military strategy

Military strategy is a collective name for planning the conduct of warfare. Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy was seen as the "art of the general". Military strategy deals with the planning and conduct of campaigns, the movement and disposition of forces, and the deception of the enemy. The father of modern strategic study, Carl von Clausewitz, defined military strategy as "the employment of battles to gain the end of war." Military strategy was one of a triumvirate of "arts" or "sciences" that govern the conduct of warfare; the others being tactics, the execution of plans and man?uvering of forces in battle, and logistics, the maintenance of an army.

Principles of military strategy

Main article: Principles of military strategy

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Many military strategists have attempted to encapsulate a successful strategy in a set of principles. Sun Tzu defined 13 principles in his The Art of War while Napoleon listed 115 maxims. American Civil War General Nathan Bedford Forrest required only one: "get there furstest with the mostest". The fundamental concepts common to most lists of principles are:

Related Topics:
Sun Tzu - The Art of War - Nathan Bedford Forrest

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• The Objective
• Offense
• Cooperation
• Concentration (Mass)
• Economy
• Man?uvre
• Surprise
• Security
• Simplicity

Some strategists assert that adhering to the fundamental principles guarantees victory while others claim war is unpredictable and the general must be flexible in formulating a strategy. Field Marshal Count Helmuth von Moltke expressed strategy as a system of "ad hoc expedients" by which a general must take action while under pressure. These underlying principles of strategy have survived relatively unscathed as the technology of warfare has developed.

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