STRATEGY—AN ACTIVITY OF THE MIND

The word strategy comes from Greek words stratëgia (generalship) and stratëgos (general or leader).7 Historically, the term strategy has been associated with military activity. The father of modern strategic studies, German Major-General Carl von Clausewitz, defined strategy as “the use of the engagement for the purpose of the war.”8 Field Marshall Helmut Carl Bernhard Graf von Moltke contended that strategy was “the practical adaptation of the means placed at a general’s disposal to the attainment of the object in view.”9 Placing less emphasis on the battles, Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart criticized Clausewitz, contending that Clausewitz’ emphasis on battles suggests that battles were the only means of achieving strategic ends.10 Thus, Liddell Hart defined strategy as “the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy.”11 Liddell Hart’s definition suggests a somewhat wider variety of military means, and clearly emphasizes that the political objectives are the ends to be pursued by military means. Of course, Clausewitz made the latter point early in his seminal On War by his famous dictum “war is not a mere act of policy, but a true political instrument, a continuation of political activity by other means.