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Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Fisher: connecting strategy and tactics

I’m interested in anything that connects strategy to tactics. And I’m also a big fan of Sir “Jacky” Fisher. So when I see a comment from the innovative former First Sea Lord about the connection, I’m all ears: Strategy should govern the types of ships to be designed. Ship design, as dictated by strategy, should ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

I'm interested in anything that connects strategy to tactics. And I'm also a big fan of Sir "Jacky" Fisher. So when I see a comment from the innovative former First Sea Lord about the connection, I'm all ears:

I’m interested in anything that connects strategy to tactics. And I’m also a big fan of Sir “Jacky” Fisher. So when I see a comment from the innovative former First Sea Lord about the connection, I’m all ears:

Strategy should govern the types of ships to be designed.

Ship design, as dictated by strategy, should govern tactics.

Tactics should govern details of armaments.

This strategic haiku is from his study Naval Necessities and is quoted in an essay in the new issue of the Journal of Military History by Shawn Grimes, yet another King’s College war studies guy.

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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