Chapter · 4:22-6:24

The three constraints that shape strategy

Strategy is bounded by how societies value human life, what they can build and sustain, and the cost they can bear.

Notes

Strategy is more than a plan for winning a fight. A state's willingness to risk people, its industrial and logistical capacity, and the societal cost of maintaining forces all narrow the choices open to it. What a force can build, where it can build it, and how it can sustain operations are therefore strategic questions rather than merely technical ones. Those constraints remain important even when new technology appears to promise a radically different kind of war.