Strategy and Policy

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Strategy and Policy

• 8802A

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Course Overview (Composition and Organization)

• Part II
• L7 WWII Pre-war Strategy and Planning
• L8 WWII Why the Allies Won
• L9 National Security Strategy during the Cold
  War (with Vietnam Case Study)
• L10 The UN and NATO in Post-Cold War Era
• L11 Post-Cold War Contemp. Issues China
• L12 Post-Cold War Contemp. Issues Middle East

• Part I
• L1 Grand Strategy Theory and Practice
• L2 National Security Decision Making
• L3 Economics and Policy
• L4 Intelligence and Policy
• L5 Total Force
• L6 National Strategic Planning

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Course Overview (Composition and Organization)

• Multimedia
• DOCNET
• Digitized lectures
• Video interviews
• Radio-style interview (audio CD included)
• Exam linkage to educational objectives (EOs)
• Cover EOs
• Cover material on the exam

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Strategy and Policy (8802A)

• Lesson 1
• Grand Strategy Theory and Practice

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Agenda

• Strategic Constants and Norms
• International Relations Theory
• Instruments/Elements of National Power
• The Limits of Military Power
• Strategy as a Concept and a Process
• National Interests
• The National Security Strategy (NSS) 2002

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Requirements

• Strategic Environment
• Means
• Elements of national power

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Requirement 1

• The environment
• Objective 1. Describe the various
  characteristics that make up the strategic
  environment.
• Objective 2. Explain International Relations
  (IR) theory and relate it to our understanding of
  important security issues that shape strategy.

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Strategic Constants and Norms

• Physical Environment
• National Character
• Relationship between war and state
• Balance of power mechanism

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Strategic Constants and Norms(Strategic
Characteristics)

• Physical Environment
• Traditional elements land forms, terrain, ocean
  and seas, climate
• Spatial elements natural resources, lines of
  communication
• Political, economic, and social makeup of a
  nation results in part from physical environment
• Location of international borders (land-locked
  vs. island nation)

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Strategic Constants and Norms(Strategic
Characteristics)

• National Character
• Character derived from location, language,
  culture, religion, societal politics, historical
  circumstances
• Always evolving
• Psychological profile of each nation or
  political group involved in the conflict
• Enemies
• Allies
• Potential enemies and allies
• Ones own nation

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Strategic Constants and Norms(Strategic
Characteristics)

• The Relationship between War and the State
• A state will almost always become involved
• States are normally replaced by other states or
  groups
• Generally, a state is remarkably tough and
  enduring
• Context of the state system(s)
• No political entity is permanent

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Strategic Constants and Norms(Strategic
Characteristics)

• The Balance of Power Mechanism
• status quo in the distribution of power
• no one dominant entity or group of entities
• more than one political power center
• Breaks down if
• One or more of the participants rebel
• A power vacuum occurs

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International Relations Theory

• Main schools
• Realism
• Idealism/liberalism
• Characteristics
• Problem
• Actors
• Characteristics

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International Relations Theory

• Realism
• Central problem war and the use of force
• Central actors states interacting with other
  states (
• Anarchic system of states
• Hobbs, Just as stormy weather does not mean
  perpetual rain, so a state of war does not mean
  constant war.
• Thucydides, The strong do what they have the
  power to do and the weak accept what they have to
  accept (Penguin translation).
• View International politics is a jungle
  dominated by the exercise of power and power
  politics

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International Relations Theory

• Idealism/Liberalism
• Views a global society that functions alongside
  the states and sets part of the context for
  states
• Trade crosses borders, people have global
  contacts, and international institutions (UN,
  NATO, etc.) create a context in which the realist
  view of pure anarchy is insufficient
• International system community
• State of war focuses only on extreme situations
  and misses the growth of economic interdependence
  and the evolution of a transnational global
  society
• Views international politics as a garden

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Requirement 2

• Objective 3. Describe how national-level
  strategy and policy incorporates the instruments
  of national power as a means of exercising power
  and influence.

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Instruments/Elements of National Power

• Diplomatic/political
• Informational
• Military
• Economic

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Instruments/Elements of National Power

• Diplomatic/Political The use of a countrys
  international diplomatic skills and political
  position to achieve national interests
• Informational The use of a countrys
  information systems to achieve national interests
• Military The extent a countrys armed forces
  can be used to achieve national interests.
• Economic The application of a countrys
  material resources to achieve national interests

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The Limits of Military Power

• Political and psychological limits
• Legitimacy and the credible capacity to coerce
• Physical limits

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The Limits of Military Power

• Culminating points
• Strategic and operational culminating points
• Culminating points short of victory

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Requirement 3

• Objective 4. Determine how the full dimension of
  strategy as a concept and as a process relates to
  the policy, strategy, and military operations
  relationship.

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Strategy as a Concept and a Process

• The Strategy Process
• Determining national security objectives
• Formulating grand strategy
• Developing military strategy
• Designing operational strategy
• Formulating battlefield strategy (tactics)

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Strategy as a Concept and a Process

• Strategy
• the bridge between policy and operations
• Effective strategy must integrate political and
  military criteria rather than separate them
• Civilian and military leaders may tend to
  polarize toward opposite sides of the bridge

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Key PointsL1 Grand Strategy Theory and
Practice (continued)
Human Rights
Diplomatic/Political
Defeat Terrorism
Economic
POLICY
OPERATIONS
Strategy
Democracy
Informational
Military
Free Markets
Free Trade
Grand
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Strategy as a Concept and a Process

• Complicating factors
• steps not neat or compartmentalized but blend and
  flow from national security objectives to tactics
• reverse flow or feedback system within the
  process
• Numerous external factors have influence
• where and by whom are decisions decisions made

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Strategy as a Concept and a Process

• Characteristics of political/policy strategic
  objectives
• First step in making strategy is deciding which
  political objectives a strategy will aim to
  achieve
• These objectives should establish
• Definitions for survival and victory for all
  participants in the conflict
• Whether the nation is pursuing a limited or
  unlimited political objective

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Strategy as a Concept and a Process

• Characteristics of military strategic
  objectives
• Military objectives flow from political/policy
  objectives
• Use of military power should not produce
  unintended or undesirable political results
• Must consider centers of gravity and critical
  vulnerabilities

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National Interests

• Vital national interests
• An interest on which the nation is unwilling to
  compromise
• An interest over which a nation would go to war
• Sometimes interests are categorized
• Survival
• Vital
• Major
• Peripheral

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Requirement 4

• Objective 5. Discuss how the current U. S.
  National Security Strategy integrates the various
  elements of national power to achieve its goals
  and objectives.

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National Security Strategy(September 2002)Goals

• Champion aspirations for human dignity
• Strengthen alliances to defeat global terrorism
  and work to prevent attacks against us and our
  friends
• Work with others to defuse regional conflicts
• Prevent our enemies from threatening us, our
  allies, and our friends with weapons of mass
  destruction

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National Security Strategy(September 2002)Goals

• Ignite a new era of global economic growth
  through free markets and free trade
• Expand the circle of development by opening
  societies and building the infrastructure of
  democracy
• Develop agendas for cooperative action with other
  main centers of global power
• Transform Americas national security
  institutions to meet the challenges and
  opportunities of the twenty-first century

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Summary

• Agenda
• Strategic Constants and Norms
• International Relations Theory
• Instruments/Elements of National Power
• The Limits of Military Power
• Strategy as a Concept and a Process
• National Interests
• The National Security Strategy (NSS) 2002

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Points to remember

• The Notions of the IR Theories
• Characteristics of the strategic environment
• Aspects of the M instrument
• Themes of the policy and strategy relationship
  and process
• Political/policy and Military Objectives
• NSS 2002 Objectives and Elements