Tacticisation of Strategy: A Comprehensive Review

Strategy has been expressed in many different ways, such as a course of action that integrates ends, ways and means to meet policy objectives. However, strategy can be replaced by tactics and some scholars have labelled this phenomenon ‘tacticisation of strategy’. In the context of this review, ‘strategy’ means a specific plan concerning the direction and use made of means, by chosen ways, to achieve desired ends. Its function is to cope with a particular historical context in time and space. On the other hand, ‘tactics’ refers to actual military behaviour or how strategy is executed. This comprehensive review investigates how tacticisation of strategy is conceptualised by analysing a range of different interpretations. The aim is to identify common properties relating to how tacticisation of strategy is conceived, how it manifests, and how it influences strategy. The review demonstrates the near-universal practice of leveraging Michael Handel’s work, and the absence of thorough examination by any scholar, has not prevented a proliferation of different explanations for the concept of tacticisation of strategy.