Grand strategy:The purposeful employment of all the instruments of power available
to a security community.
Great Depression:Collapse of much of international commerce following the Wall
Street Crash of 29 October 1929, and its consequences in sharply reduced economic
activity and high unemployment.
Great war:A war involving all, or at least most, of the world’s great powers.
Guerrilla warfare:A style of warfare waged by the weaker belligerent, favouring
surprise and small-scale engagements.
Hydrogen, or thermonuclear, weapons:Nuclear weapons that require the fusion of two
isotopes of hydrogen. This is achieved by implosion effected by an atomic fission
‘trigger’.
ICBM:Intercontinental ballistic missile of 4,000-mile range or more.
Insurgency:A popular uprising, probably employing the tactics of guerrilla warfare,
initially at least.
International community:The notional collectivity of all humankind. The UN is its
rough approximation.
Irregular warfare:Warfare in which at least one belligerent is not a state with regular
armed forces.
Joint warfare:Warfare as a joint endeavour by two or more of the geographically
specialized forces: army, navy and air force.
Jomini, Baron Antoine Henri de (1779–1869):The most influential military writer of
the first half of the nineteenth century, especially with respect to strategy.
League of Nations:International organization established by the Versailles Treaty of
1919 for the purpose of keeping, or restoring, international order and peace.
Manoeuvre warfare:A style of combat dependent upon mobility; usually contrasted
with attrition.
Military revolution (MR):Great change in the contexts of warfare that cannot be
resisted. Examples include the Industrial Revolution, the nuclear revolution and the
information revolution.
Military-technical revolution (MTR):A revolution in military affairs keyed to techno-
logical change.
Mutual assured destruction (MAD):A condition of mutual societal vulnerability to
nuclear destruction.
Operations, operational art:The conduct of a campaign, requiring the employment of
tactical engagements and other behaviour for their campaign-level effects.
Peer competitor:A country or coalition sufficiently powerful to be one’s near equal.
Pre-emption, prevention:A strategy of pre-emption entails a commitment to strike first
in the last resort. By contrast, a strategy of prevention entails a readiness to strike
first in order to prevent the presumptive enemy from being ready to initiate hostilities
on its terms.
Reconnaissance–strike complex:Soviet concept of the 19 8 0s, subsequently more or
less realized by the United States. It is a military system that, all but seamlessly, can
locate enemy assets and strike them with great precision over a long distance.
Regular warfare:Open warfare between the uniformed armed forces of states.
Reparation:A bill for the recovery of costs suffered by the actions of the defeated
belligerent in war.
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