Strategic Perspectives: Clausewitz, Sun-tzu and Thucydides

This article illustrates the nature and function of strategy in military affairs. The main argument of the article is that strategy is a bridge connecting military power with political purpose. Strategy and military power are not alike, nor is strategy the actual application of power. Similarly, strategy is not policy. Strategy should be seen as a “theory of success.” Strategy is the source of operational plans intended to convert nominal military capability into useful performance against the enemy. To illustrate the nature and function of strategy, the article reflects on the behavior of Winston Churchill’s British government in the summer of 1940. The second part of the article considers eight classic works on different aspects of strategy.