# Strategy
**Strategy** is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. The word comes from the Greek *stratēgia*, meaning troop leadership, command, or generalship, and ultimately from *strategos*, the title of an elected general in ancient Athens who held combined political and military authority.[1](https://web.archive.org/web/20201001181704/https:/www.britannica.com/topic/strategy-military) Strategy matters because the resources available to achieve goals are usually limited: it links ends (goals) to means (resources) by setting priorities, determining needed actions, and mobilizing resources to execute them.
| Key facts | Detail |
|---|---|
| Etymology | Greek *stratēgia* (generalship), from *strategos*, an elected Athenian general[1](https://web.archive.org/web/20201001181704/https:/www.britannica.com/topic/strategy-military) |
| Earliest English use | 1616, in a translation by John Bingham[2](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/strategy_n?tab=etymology) |
| Byzantine usage | By the 6th century, strategy was distinguished from and ranked above tactics[3](http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/99681/excerpt/9780521199681_excerpt.htm) |
| Modern Western revival | Joly de Maizeroy's 1771 French translation of Leo's *Taktiká* introduced the strategy/tactics hierarchy[3](http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/99681/excerpt/9780521199681_excerpt.htm) |
| Military definition | Employment of military, economic, political, and other resources of a country to achieve the objects of war[1](https://web.archive.org/web/20201001181704/https:/www.britannica.com/topic/strategy-military) |
## Etymology and early history
In Eastern Roman (Byzantine) usage, by the sixth century at the latest, in the time of Emperor Justinian, a distinction was made between strategy and, hierarchically subordinated to it, tactics.[3](http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/99681/excerpt/9780521199681_excerpt.htm) This division was not always sharp for East Roman and Byzantine generals, who often treated the two as difficult to separate.[4](https://www.qeios.com/read/CRWM0M.2/pdf)
The English noun is a borrowing from Greek, with its earliest known use in the early 1600s, appearing in 1616 in a translation by John Bingham.[2](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/strategy_n?tab=etymology) The modern hierarchical sense returned to Western languages in 1771, when Paul-Gédéon Joly de Maizeroy (1719–80) translated Emperor Leo's *Taktiká* into French, and for the first time in the West the terms strategy and tactics were used in a hierarchical sense.[3](http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/99681/excerpt/9780521199681_excerpt.htm) The meaning of the word has changed considerably over time, which partly explains persistent disagreement about its use.[3](http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/99681/excerpt/9780521199681_excerpt.htm)
## Military strategy
In warfare, strategy is the science or art of employing all the military, economic, political, and other resources of a country to achieve the objects of war.[1](https://web.archive.org/web/20201001181704/https:/www.britannica.com/topic/strategy-military) Theorists commonly distinguish tactics, operations, and strategy, and sometimes add grand strategy, which encompasses the coordination of all state policy.[1](https://web.archive.org/web/20201001181704/https:/www.britannica.com/topic/strategy-military) The modern sense of strategy as the deployment of all available resources toward war's objects developed only from the nineteenth century.[4](https://www.qeios.com/read/CRWM0M.2/pdf)
Classic definitions subordinate military action to political aims. Liddell Hart's framing remains a reference point in doctrine: current American joint doctrine similarly defines strategy as a prudent idea or set of means for employing instruments of national power.[5](https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Research-and-Books/Archives/2020/PDF/June-20-On-Strategy.pdf)
Governments also write strategy documents for specific missions.
## Business and management strategy
Alfred Chandler wrote in 1962 that strategy is the determination of the basic long-term goals of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out those goals.
**Rumelt's kernel.** Richard P. Rumelt described strategy in 2011 as a type of problem solving with an underlying structure he called a kernel, consisting of a diagnosis that defines the challenge, a guiding policy for dealing with it, and coherent actions designed to carry out that policy.
## Complexity perspectives
Complexity science offers a framework for combining deliberate and emergent strategy.
## Game theory
In game theory, the mathematical study of strategic interactions, a player's strategy is any of the options that the player would choose in a specific setting.
## References
1. [Strategy (military) - Britannica](https://web.archive.org/web/20201001181704/https:/www.britannica.com/topic/strategy-military)
2. [strategy, n. - Oxford English Dictionary](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/strategy_n?tab=etymology)
3. [The Evolution of Strategy - Beatrice Heuser, Cambridge University Press](http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/99681/excerpt/9780521199681_excerpt.htm)
4. [The invention of strategy at the turn of the 18th to 19th centuries - Qeios](https://www.qeios.com/read/CRWM0M.2/pdf)
5. [On Strategy: A Primer - US Army University Press](https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Research-and-Books/Archives/2020/PDF/June-20-On-Strategy.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Conflict and security › Conflict and security concepts › Military strategy and grand strategy*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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