List of military strategies and concepts

This article is a list of military strategies and concepts that are commonly recognized and referenced. Military strategies are methods of arranging and maneuvering large bodies of military forces during armed conflicts.

Offensive strategies

 * Air superiority – Essential to a successful air campaign. It is achieved by 1) mastery of the air, 2) attacking the means of production, 3) maintain battle ourselves, 4) prevent the enemy from battle
 * Attrition warfare – A strategy of wearing down an enemy to the point of collapse through continuous loss of personnel and matériel
 * Bait and bleed – A military strategy similar to the concept of divide and conquer
 * Battle of annihilation – The goal of destroying an opposing army in a single planned pivotal battle
 * Bellum se ipsum alet – A strategy of feeding and supporting an army with the potentials of occupied territories
 * Blitzkrieg – An attack that uses concentrated force and rapid speed to break through enemy lines, named after the German World War II strategy
 * Blockade / Siege / Investment – An attempt to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, usually taking place by sea
 * Clear and hold – A counter-insurgency strategy
 * Coercion – Compelling an enemy to involuntarily behave in a certain way by targeting the leadership, national communications, or political-economic centers
 * Command of the sea – The naval equivalent of air superiority
 * Counter-offensive – A strategic offensive taking place after an enemy's front line troops and reserves have been exhausted, and before the enemy has had the opportunity to assume new defensive positions
 * Counterforce – A strategy used in nuclear warfare of targeting military infrastructure (as opposed to civilian targets)
 * Countervalue – The opposite of counterforce; targeting of an opponent's cities and civilian populations
 * Decapitation – Achieving strategic paralysis by targeting political leadership, command and control, strategic weapons, and critical economic nodes
 * Deception – A strategy that seeks to deceive, trick, or fool the enemy and create a false perception in a way that can be leveraged for a military advantage
 * Denial – A strategy that seeks to destroy an enemy's ability to wage war
 * Distraction – An attack by some of the force on one or two flanks, drawing up to a strong frontal attack by the rest of the force
 * Encirclement – Both a strategy and tactic designed to isolate and surround enemy forces
 * Ends, Ways, Means, Risk – Strategy is much like a three legged stool of ends, ways, means balanced on a plane of varying degree of risk
 * Exhaustion – A strategy that seeks to erode the will or resources of a country
 * Feint – To draw attention to another point of the battle where little or nothing is going on
 * Flanking maneuver – Involves attacking the opponent from the side, or rear
 * Heavy force – A counterinsurgency strategy that seeks to destroy and insurgency with overwhelming force while it is still in a manageable state
 * Human wave attack – An unprotected frontal attack where the attacker tries to move as many soldiers as possible into engaging close range combat with the defender
 * Incentive – A strategy that uses incentives to gain cooperation
 * Indirect approach – Dislocation is the aim of strategy. Direct attacks almost never work, one must first upset the enemy's equilibrium, fix weakness and attack strength, Seven rules of strategy: 1) adjust your ends to your means, 2) keep your object always in mind, 3) choose the line of the least expectation, 4) exploit the line of least resistance, 5) take the line of operations which offers the most alternatives, 6) ensure both plans and dispositions are flexible, 7) do not throw your weight into an opponent while he is on guard, 8) do not renew an attack along the same lines if an attack has failed
 * Interior lines – Placing ones forces in between the enemy forces and attacking each in turn in order to allow ones forces to have better communications and allows one to mass all of ones forces against a part of the enemies
 * Limited war – A war in which the survival of a nation is not at stake
 * Penetration – A direct attack through the enemy lines, then an attack on the rear once through
 * Periclean strategy – The two basic principles of the "Periclean Grand Strategy" were the rejection of appeasement (in accordance with which he urged the Athenians not to revoke the Megarian Decree) and the avoidance of overextension
 * Persisting strategy – A strategy that seeks to destroy the means by which an enemy sustains itself
 * Pincer ambush – A "U"-shaped attack with the sides concealed and the middle held back until the enemy advances, at which point the concealed sides ambush them
 * Pincer maneuver – Allowing the enemy to attack the center, sometimes in a charge, then attacking the flanks of the charge
 * Punishment – A strategy that seeks to push a society beyond its economic and physiological breaking point
 * Rapid Decisive Operations – Compelling an adversary to undertake certain actions or denying the adversary the ability to coerce or attack others.
 * Raiding – Attacking with the purpose of removing enemy's supply or provisions
 * Refusing the flank – Putting the minimal number of troops required to hold out against an enemy attack while the rest of the army launches a counterattack through the enemy flank
 * Separation of insurgents – A counterinsurgency strategy should first seek to separate the enemy from the population, then deny the enemy reentry, and finally execute long enough to deny the insurgent access
 * Scorpion attack – A pincer attack that is supplemented by an air strike
 * Shape, Clear, Hold, Build – The counterinsurgency theory that states the process of winning and insurgency is shape, clear, hold, build
 * Siege – Continuous attack by bombardment on a fortified position, usually by artillery
 * Shock and awe – A military doctrine using overwhelming power to try and achieve rapid dominance over the enemy
 * Swarming – Military swarming involves the use of a decentralized force against an opponent, in a manner that emphasizes mobility, communication, unit autonomy and coordination/synchronization.
 * Theater strategy – Concepts and courses of action directed toward securing the objectives of national and multinational policies and strategies through the synchronized and integrated employment of military forces and other instruments of national power
 * Total war – War in which a nation's survival is at stake
 * Turning maneuver – An attack that penetrates an enemy flank, then curls into its rear to cut it off from home
 * Win without fighting – Sun Tzu argued that a brilliant general was one that could win without fighting

Defensive strategies

 * Defence in depth – A strategy to delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker by buying time and causing additional casualties by yielding space so that the momentum of the attack is lost
 * Boxing maneuver – A strategy used to "box in" and force and attack on all sides at once
 * Withdrawal – A retreat of forces while maintaining contact with the enemy
 * Fortification
 * Fabian strategy – Wearing down an enemy by using attrition warfare and indirection, while avoiding pitched battles or frontal assaults
 * Military district, also known as Wehrkreis in German
 * Scorched earth – Destroying anything that might be of use to the enemy while retreating, or advancing
 * Turtling – Continuous reinforcement of an army until it has reached its full strength, then an attack with the now-superior force

Strategic concepts

 * Centers of gravity – The hub of all power and movement on which everything depends, the point at which all energies should be directed
 * Decisive point – A geographic place, specific key event, critical system, or function that allows commanders to gain a marked advantage over an enemy and greatly influence the outcome of an attack
 * DIME(FIL) – The elements of national power diplomacy, information, military, and economics, often included are financial, intelligence, and law enforcement see MIDLIFE
 * Expediency – War is a matter of expedients – von Moltke
 * Fog, friction, chance – War is characterized by fog, friction, and chance
 * Golden Bridge – To leave an opponent an opportunity to withdraw in order to not force them to act out of desperation – Sun Tzu
 * Iron Calculus of War – Resistance = Means x Will – Clausewitz
 * MIDLIFE – The elements of national power diplomacy, information, military, and economics, often included are financial, intelligence, and law enforcement, see DIME(FIL)
 * Moral ascendancy – Moral force is the trump card for any military event because as events change the human elements of war remain unchanged – Du Piq
 * OODA loop – Decision-making occurs in a recurring cycle of observe-orient-decide-act. An entity (whether an individual or an organization) that can process this cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby "get inside" the opponent's decision cycle and gain the advantage – Boyd
 * Paradoxical nature – The nature of strategy is a paradoxical and does not follow a linear pattern – Luttwak
 * Positive ends – The possibility of taking advantage of a new security environment to create conditions for long-term peace – Wass de Czege
 * Primary Trinity – (1) primordial violence, hatred, and enmity; (2) the play of chance and probability; and (3) war's element of subordination to rational policy – Clausewitz
 * Secondary Trinity – People, Army, and Government – Clausewitz
 * Principles of war:
 * Objective (Direct every military operation towards a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective)
 * Offensive (Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative)
 * Mass (Concentrate combat power at the decisive place and time)
 * Economy of Force (Allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts)
 * Maneuver (place the enemy in a disadvantageous position through the flexible application of combat power)
 * Unity of Command (For every Objective, ensure Unity of effort under one responsible commander)
 * Security (Never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage)
 * Surprise (Strike the enemy at a time, at a place, or in a manner for which he is unprepared)
 * Simplicity (Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure thorough understanding) – US Army FM 3.0
 * Systems approach – Nation-states operate like biological organisms composed of discrete systems. These systems included: leadership, organic essentials, infrastructure, population, and the military – Warden
 * Tipping point – The point at which "the momentum for change becomes unstoppable." – Gladwell
 * VUCA – Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity characterize the strategic environment – U.S. Army War College
 * Weinberger-Powell Doctrine – A list of questions have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:
 * Is a vital national security interest threatened?
 * Do we have a clear attainable objective?
 * Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
 * Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
 * Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
 * Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
 * Is the action supported by the American people?
 * Do we have genuine broad international support?