Second, theory comes into the strategizing process as a constraint on the strategist’s choices, never more or less significant than another kind of constraint. It carries no special authority and von Clausewitz’s main critique of academics was their assumption that theory was a superior form of human knowing. To the contrary, it stands pari passu with facts, intentions, heuristics, emotions, and intuitions, not above them. Anticipating human action, the strategist must deal with constraints of many types—legal, normative, cultural, financial, technological, historical, motivational, and so
...more
