What Is Grand Strategy?

The word strategy stems from the Greek word stratēgos, which denotes a military commander. Although the term has its origins in the battle plans of militaries, it has come to encompass a much broader meaning.

It may be defined as a plan with two major characteristics:

The first gives the planner a competitive advantage over someone else in order to reach a particular goal.

Secondly, the scope of strategy focuses on an extended period of time in which the effects of implementation are not expected to manifest immediately.

These characteristics are also part of grand strategy. But as the term "grand" suggests, there is an additional qualification that needs to be met:

In the context of international relations, this means that grand strategy should also be defined with regards to the geographical scale for which it is established. The term "grand" implies that its focus is larger in scale than that of standard strategizing. This scale can be either regional or global.

Secondly, the actor needs to harness a wide-range of resources in order to reach the intended goal, as the following Encyclopedia Britannica definition suggests:

"Grand strategy encompasses the coordination of all state policy, including economic and diplomatic tools of statecraft, to pursue some national or coalitional ends."

This definition however, contains a serious shortcoming:

By focusing on the state, empires or coalitions of states, this definition does not provide for the range of actors that may construct a grand strategy; indeed, states are not the only actors capable of designing a grand strategy in the international system.

One can argue that armed non-state actors such as Al- Qaeda or Hezbollah are using a wide variety of resources to attain their goals within the international system. Al- Qaeda, for example, coordinates military and non-military resources, such as its capability to conduct terrorist attacks combined with its dissemination of propaganda, to further its goal of becoming a regional caliphate.. Its writings have also demonstrated a long-term plan to reach this goal, including undermining governments in the West that support moderate Arab governments.

In light of these factors the following definition of grand strategy in the context of international relations might make more sense:

Grand strategy is a long-term plan, by a state or non-state actor, that competes for power in the international system on a global or regional scale that incorporates and coordinates all military and non- military resources to gain an advantage over other actors and reach a defined policy goal.

Whether this definition of grand strategy makes sense is ultimately a question of if one shares some of the assumptions of the neorealist worldview.

Neorealism defines the international system as an anarchical space where the only relevant actors are states competing for power, and where conflict not cooperation is the norm. While this model of the world probably is too state-centric in today's world of complex interdependence, where many non-state actors - armed or unarmed - have an important influence on developments, it nevertheless reflects the competition for power in the international system and the centrality of security concerns.

Consequence of this core assumption is the necessity for a state or another actor to constantly reassess its standing in the international system and determine how it can safeguard its power from competitors to reach its security and other goals.

While facilitating the competition for power and influence in the international system is undoubtedly a main goal of grand strategy, it should not be reduced to a competition for military power alone. For example, Joseph Nye pointed out in his book Soft Power that while on the level of military power the world is dominated by the US, the distribution of power is much more diffuse in terms of economic power and transnational actors. In other words, military capabilities are not for the only measure of power in the international system.

As a result, grand strategy reflects this multilayered conception of power in the international system by serving as a coordination platform for all the resources an actor must employ to gain its competitive advantage. In today's globalized world, where an unprecedented empowerment of non-state actors - from NGOs and terrorist groups to a single individual with an internet connection - has taken place, a superpower such as the US needs more than aircraft carriers to reach its intended goals.

If the 'war on terror' will ever be won, it is unlikely to be a purely military victory. It might well be the consequence of a combination of different economic, cultural and educational engagements with the Middle East, a negotiated solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and decisive military and covert action to reduce Al-Qaeda's influence. The long-term coordination of these engagements is the main purpose of a grand strategy.