navy war college did the british still have a chance to win after france entered the war in 1778

2 For military officers, the word strategy referred then to military tactics, not national security strategy or even grand strategy. In the 18 th century, for the most part, a strategy meant “the rules of the game”-that is, maxims on how to execute battles, in much the same way Sun Tzu or Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini handed us recipes for success. Palmer argued that it “was not a word George Washington ever used.” 1 However, as Palmer also states, there was most certainly strategy before Clausewitz. Palmer, historian and former West Point superintendent, strategy was not a commonly used word until Carl von Clausewitz analyzed the Napoleonic Wars of the 19 th century. His command of all the instruments of national power most certainly provides a superlative model for officers who will serve in the JIIM environment in the future.Īccording to Lieutenant General Dave R. Washington was undoubtedly the first and possibly the only officer to simultaneously serve as de facto Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Chief of Staff of the Army, and commander of an army in a combat theater. forces during the American Revolution, understood how all four instruments of national power could be orchestrated to achieve the aim of independence from Great Britain. Long before he became President, Washington was a national security strategist who, as commander of all U.S. But while many of the founders understood one or perhaps two of these instruments, General George Washington was the first American to execute a strategy using all four to achieve his ends-all while operating in a joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational (JIIM) environment, as complicated in its time as ours is today. To achieve that end, they relied on all four instruments of national power-diplomatic, informational, military, and economic. They wanted political, military, and economic independence for the 13 colonies.

On July 4, 1776, American leaders at the Second Continental Congress terminated the strategy they had been executing against Great Britain for over a year. The Passage of the Delaware, by Thomas Sully, 1819, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Navy war college did the british still have a chance to win after france entered the war in 1778