What if Clausewitz was alive today? What advice would he give us about great power competition? Perhaps it would be something like this...
Protect National Interests to survive, advance Interests to thrive.
Don’t pick a fight with a nuclear power, everyone will lose.
If you’re not first, it doesn’t suck to be second.
The only thing that defines a threat is the thing threatened.
National power means DIME, not M with the others in tow.
Best friend and worst enemy still applies.
Balance Power in the Geo-Political environment with your thumb on the scale.
National interests can be turned into objectives. Try to have a purpose while making friends and killing people.
Competition is a team sport, so don’t crap on your team just because you are bigger.
Just because the great power game never ends doesn’t mean you can’t win.
Just because you win, the game is not over.
Military activities executed do not necessarily equal results against a peer power.
If you play your game and the enemy his, one of you is losing.
National interests are unachievable, but if you don’t campaign to advance them the enemy will beat you.
The status quo is undefendable over time.
Wars of choice are usually a strategic dead end that limit future choices and risk power balance.
Power is a means, not an ends: It’s about Interests dummkopf.
Leverage power & influence to defend homeland, promote prosperity, and protect values.
Not everything a hostile nation does is a problem, not all friendly nations advance your interests.
There is no such thing as a contained conventional war between great powers, especially if they have nukes.
Competition is campaigning in peace with others who are friends against those who are foes.
International Relations theory applies even when the metallic density of the air increases.
War is politics by other means, but politics and economics are typically better off without war.
Static deterrence is losing while believing your winning.
Advantage is found by leveraging power and influence to shape positive outcomes.
Be ready to fight anywhere at any time but try to win without fighting when possible.
Once violence is engaged the laws of chance take over.
The more debt a nation has, the fewer the strategic options available.
Seeing everything as a threat will lead to strategic exhaustion.
Don’t let internal squabbles take your eye off an existential threat.
Winners campaign globally and continuously. Losers campaign regionally with uncoordinated efforts and little integration with other elements of power.
Losers believe all high-end conflict in competition ends just like WWII.
All Empires collapse from within, but some are dealt a death blow from without.
If you only look for threats in competition, you will chase your tail.
Hey dummkopf, opportunity is active and defense reactive.
The strategist derives objectives from national interests and higher strategy, then networks operations with interagency. The dummkopf, pursues one off tactical victories that are not connected to any higher purpose.
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