"Strategic" is More than Lines on a Map

The distortion of the phrase and victory and defeat in a war

Hi All,

Considering all the attention and feedback the weekend update on the abuse of the world “Strategy” has received (and continues to receive in major foreign affairs articles) I thought I would expand on the question a little more for subscribers. In particular, a few ideas about how you can understand a war from the point of view of strategic effect. In summation, what matters more and what matters less than you think when you look at the war. Often what analysts and commentators get excited about in the war seems to me to be irrelevant to understanding the process of determining who will win or lose the conflict. That is because the analysis often focusses on the easy to find, easy to measure variables—which can be eye catching but reveal little of substance.

With that in mind I present to you three things to always keep in mind.