Strategic Analysis in Canada
| Date | 01 September 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207803300301 |
| Published date | 01 September 1978 |
| Author | John Gellner |
| Subject Matter | Article |
JOHN
GELLNER
Strategic
analysis
in
Canada
The
purpose
of
a
nation's armed
forces
is
to
help
in
the
achievement
of
national
objectives.
Military
strategy
deals
with
the
instrumen-
talities
for
doing
so
-
or,
as
Sir
Basil
Liddell
Hart
defined
it,
'strategy
is
the
art
of
distributing
and
applying
military
means
to
fulfil
the
ends
of
policy.'
The
best
strategy
is
the
one
which provides
the
na-
tion
with
the
most
effective,
and
at
the
same
time
the
most economi-
cal,
means
of
gaining
its
objectives.
This
is
perhaps
stating
the
obvi-
ous.
The
essential
unity
of
political
and
military
strategy,
with
the
former
setting
down
what
is
to
be
done
and
the
latter
determin-
ing
how
to
do
it (in
the
military
sphere)
has,
however,
not
always
been
realized,
and,
if
realized,
not
always
demonstrated
in
prac-
tice.
Where
that
unity
is
at
the
basis of
all
planning,
'everything
in
strategy
is
very
simple,
but
not
on
that
account
easy."
Where
that
co-ordination
is
lacking,
nothing
is
simple.
Military strategy
may
then
bear
little relation
to
the
national
aim.
In
that
event,
the
national
military
effort,
as
expressed
in
the
deployment
of
forces,
their
organization
and
their
equipment,
will
to
a
greater
or
lesser
extent
be wasted.
This,
for
a
long
time,
was
the
case
in
Canada,
and,
though
re-
cently
there
have
been
encouraging
signs
that
things
are
changing,
it
still
seems
to
hamper
the
Canadian
military
effort.
The
turn
for
the
better,
such
as
it
was,
probably
came
with
the
1964
White Paper
on
Defence,
which
for
the
first
time
spelled
out
the
relationship
be-
Visiting
Associate
Professor
of
Political
Science,
York
University,
editor
of
Cana-
dian
Defence
Quarterly,
and
author
of
numerous
publications
on questions
of
defence
and
strategy.
i
Carl von
Clausewitz,
On
War,
edited
and
translated
by
Michael
Howard
and
Peter
Parer
(Princeton
1976).
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