Is it prescriptive or descriptive?
In other words, is grand strategy a tangible policy developed by nations? Or is it an abstract tool of analysis imposed by observers?
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COMMENTS / 10 COMMENTS
shane added these pithy words on 16 Nov 07 at 1:47 pmDescriptive. It puts the big picture in context. Once it gets “prescriptive”, it stops being “strategy” and becomes “tactics”.
Ralph Hitchens added these pithy words on 16 Nov 07 at 2:56 pmDisagree with Shane. Strategy must be prescriptive. Containment was a strategy. So was “Carthago delenda est.” Tactics (actually, operations is the next level down from strategy) has to do with implementation.
Lexington Green added these pithy words on 16 Nov 07 at 5:30 pmPrescriptive. The use of the word strategy necessarily implies a basis for action. A strategy without action is mere thought experimentation. The descriptive activity which may be described as “grand strategy” is a necessary fact-gathering and analytic activity, including offering policy proposals, but strictly speaking, it precedes the adoption and execution of grand strategy.
Younghusband added these pithy words on 16 Nov 07 at 7:44 pmRE: the strategy > operations > tactics paradigm, we are discussing grand strategy which is a higher order. In the case of the US which annually releases a National Security Strategy, GS is prescriptive. Other countries don’t release sweeping statements like that, and thus GS is defined by analysts and pundits. Then again, the NSS is inherently a political document, so you could argue that it isn’t objective and the descriptive analysis of the punditocracy actually defines the grand strategy. Just my 2 yens.
Adrian added these pithy words on 16 Nov 07 at 8:57 pmIf you have some organization at the top of your hierarchy that has the power to implement and oversea a grand strategy, then its prescriptive – for instance a rational Saddam might have been able to implement a grand strategy. In countries with checks and balances, etc., and competing interests and stakeholders, it becomes a prescriptive thing.
Adrian added these pithy words on 16 Nov 07 at 9:01 pmWhoops those last two words should be “descriptive thing.”
subadei added these pithy words on 17 Nov 07 at 1:31 amI think it’s first descriptive (observation/analysis) then prescriptive (application of protocol or action based on the latter.) The two seem mutually inclusive in respect to grand strategy.
IJ added these pithy words on 17 Nov 07 at 10:23 amThe difference between national grand strategy and international grand strategy was evident this week in a presentation at the CSIS.
The International Energy Agency calculate that the world needs additional oil production of 37.5m barrels a day between now and 2015. Opec and non-Opec producers plan to add only 25m. “The next 10 years are critical”, conclude the IEA. Granted the IEA have consumer interests mainly at heart, but consumers are in the majority.
ElamBend added these pithy words on 17 Nov 07 at 9:53 pmI think it depends. For example of the descriptive: The U.S. grand strategy for the last 200 years has been to open up new markets to its own and to protect the ones that exist. one current tactic is the spread of democracy.
However, for prescriptive we could suppose that the current grand strategy of the U.S. is to spread Democracy to the furthest extent possible because this appears the have certain tangible and un-tangible benefits. To do so, the U.S. will economically punish (when feasible) malfeasant countries, support democratic organizations in rogue-ish countries and promote world-wide transparency.
I’m not sure that these examples are good, but that’s how I see it. I think Lex provided a pithier definition and one that I lean toward; I’m just not sure if ‘grand strategy’ can be defined without a definition of the ‘Grand Strategy.’
Elizabeth added these pithy words on 21 Nov 07 at 7:51 amPrescriptive, without a doubt. Strategy has to do with achieving future goals, and thus, cannot possibly deal with facts. It is a network of “ifs”, “thens” and “oughts”. A descriptive statement akin to a strategy would be called a framework in this context.
Whether a strategy is long or short term, grand or minor, national or international, has no bearing on the term’s being prescriptive.
