Military strategy

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Military strategy is a policy implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals.^[1] Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century^[2], was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general"^[3], 'the art of arrangement' of troops.^[4] 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." Liddell Hart's definition put less emphasis on battles, defining strategy as "the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfil the ends of policy" Hence, both gave the pre-eminence to political aims over military goals, ensuring civilian control of the military.

Contents

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• 1 Fundamentals
  • 1.1 Background
• 2 Principles
• 3 Development
  • 3.1 Early military strategy
  • 3.2 Genghis Khan and the Mongols
  • 3.3 Napoleonic strategy
  • 3.4 Clausewitz and Jomini
  • 3.5 Strategy in the industrial age, 1860s-1900s
  • 3.6 Strategy in World War I
  • 3.7 Strategy development between World Wars
  • 3.8 Strategy in World War II
    • 3.8.1 German strategy
    • 3.8.2 Anglo-American strategy
    • 3.8.3 Soviet strategy
    • 3.8.4 Japanese strategy
    • 3.8.5 American strategy
    • 3.8.6 Australian strategy
  • 3.9 Cold War strategy
  • 3.10 Post Cold War strategy
  • 3.11 Netwar
• 4 Military strategists
• 5 See also
• 6 Citations and notes
• 7 References
• 8 Further reading