39 Facts About Military strategy

1.

Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals.

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2.

Strategy differs from tactics, in that strategy refers to the employment of all of a nation's military capabilities through high level and long term planning, development, and procurement to guarantee security or victory.

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3.

Military strategy is the planning and execution of the contest between groups of armed adversaries.

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4.

Military strategy involves using military resources such as people, equipment, and information against the opponent's resources to gain supremacy or reduce the opponent's will to fight, developed through the precepts of military science.

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5.

The view had prevailed since the Roman times, and the borderline between Military strategy and tactics at this time was blurred, and sometimes categorization of a decision is a matter of almost personal opinion.

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6.

All deal with distance, time and force but Military strategy is large scale, can endure through years, and is societal while tactics are small scale and involve the disposition of fewer elements enduring hours to weeks.

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7.

Originally Military strategy was understood to govern the prelude to a battle while tactics controlled its execution.

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8.

Fundamental to grand Military strategy is the diplomacy through which a nation might forge alliances or pressure another nation into compliance, thereby achieving victory without resorting to combat.

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9.

Principles of military strategy emerged at least as far back as 500 BC in the works of Sun Tzu and Chanakya.

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10.

Mahan describes in the preface to The Influence of Sea Power upon History how the Romans used their sea power to effectively block the sea lines of communication of Hannibal with Carthage; and so via a maritime Military strategy achieved Hannibal's removal from Italy, despite never beating him there with their legions.

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11.

The Battle of Plataea in 479 BC resulted in a victory for the Greeks against Persia, which exemplified that military strategy was extremely beneficial to defeating a numerous enemy.

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12.

The building blocks of Genghis' army and his Military strategy were his tribal levies of mounted archers, scorched earth-style methods, and, equally essential, the vast horse-herds of Mongolia.

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13.

Frederick's "victory" led to great significance being placed on "geometric Military strategy" which emphasized lines of manoeuvre, awareness of terrain and possession of critical strong-points.

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14.

Military strategy's opponents, being suddenly confronted with a new threat and with little reserves, had no choice but to weaken the area closest to the flanking formation and draw up a battle line at a right angle in an attempt to stop this new threat.

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15.

Second Military strategy used by Napoleon I of France when confronted with two or more enemy armies was the use of the central position.

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16.

Military strategy's subordinate was unable to mask the defeated Prussian army, who reinforced the Waterloo battle in time to defeat Napoleon and end his domination of Europe.

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17.

Clausewitz, war was first and foremost a political act, and thus the purpose of all Military strategy was to achieve the political goal that the state was seeking to accomplish.

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18.

Clausewitz further dismissed "geometry" as an insignificant factor in Military strategy, believing instead that ideally all wars should follow the Napoleonic concept of victory through a decisive battle of annihilation and destruction of the opposing force, at any cost.

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19.

In contrast to Clausewitz, Antoine-Henri Jomini dealt mainly with operational Military strategy, planning and intelligence, the conduct of the campaign, and "generalship" rather than "statesmanship".

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20.

Military strategy proposed that victory could be achieved by occupying the enemy's territory rather than destroying his army.

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21.

Jomini's two basic principles of Military strategy were to concentrate against fractions of the enemy force at a time and to strike at the most decisive objective.

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22.

Military strategy recognised the need to delegate control to subordinate commanders and to issue directives rather than specific orders.

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23.

The Military strategy he formulated was the Schlieffen Plan, defending in the east while concentrating for a decisive victory in the west, after which the Germans would go on to the offensive in the east.

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24.

Military strategy's theory defied popular military thinking of the time, which was strongly in favour of victory in battle, yet World War I would soon demonstrate the flaws of a mindless "strategy of annihilation".

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25.

Military strategy's theories contributed to the naval arms race between 1898 and 1914.

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26.

At the start of World War I Military strategy was dominated by the offensive thinking that had been in vogue since 1870, despite the more recent experiences of the Second Boer War and Russo-Japanese War, where the machine gun demonstrated its defensive capabilities.

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27.

World War I Military strategy was dominated by the "Spirit of the Offensive", where generals resorted almost to mysticism in terms of a soldier's personal "attitude" in order to break the stalemate; this led to nothing but bloody slaughter as troops in close ranks charged machine guns.

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28.

Hitler's strategy involved building up German military and economic strength through re-armament, while seeking to avoid an early war by diplomatic engagement with France, Britain and the Soviet Union.

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29.

Military strategy had wrongly assumed that Britain would be a German ally in the west against France, and so he did not foresee an enduring war in the west.

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30.

Once the Second World War had begun with France and Britain as allies, German Military strategy aimed to win a short war in France and to force Britain to the negotiating table.

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31.

British Military strategy was one of survival, defending the British isles directly in the Battle of Britain and indirectly by defeating Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic and the combined Axis powers in the North African Campaign.

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32.

Churchill especially favoured a Southern Military strategy, aiming to attack the "soft underbelly" of Axis Europe through Italy, Greece and the Balkans in a Military strategy similar to the First World War idea of "knocking out the supports".

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33.

At the Tehran Conference Allied Military strategy adopted its final major component with the acceptance of Soviet conditions for a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, to include eastern Germany and Berlin.

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34.

Early Soviet Military strategy aimed to avoid or delay war, while developing the central government's hold over the state and expanding the industrial base.

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35.

Soviet Military strategy was therefore aimed at preserving the state, at whatever cost, and then the ultimate defeat and conquest of Germany.

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36.

Japanese World War II Military strategy was driven by two factors: the desire to expand their territories on the mainland of Asia, and the need to secure the supply of raw resources they didn't have themselves, particularly oil.

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37.

People's war Military strategy was employed in countries around the world such as Cuba, Nicaragua, Nepal, Philippines, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

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38.

Primary effect of insurgent elements upon conventional force strategy is realized in the twofold exploitation of the inherent violence of military operations.

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39.

Such a Military strategy has been illustrated in the war against the IRA, though an adoption and codification are unclear.

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