A
tactic is a conceptual action. In military usage, a military tactic is used by a military unit of no larger than a
divisionA division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between ten to thirty thousand soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions make up a corps...
to implement a specific mission and achieve a specific objective, or to advance toward a specific goal. A tactic is implemented as one or more tasks.
These concepts can be defined as a hierarchy:
- Strategy
A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. The word strategy has military connotations, because it derives from the Greek word for general....
- Operational objective
An operational or operating objective is a short-term goal whose attainment moves an organization towards achieving strategic or long-term goals. In business, operational objectives define a clear, often measurable, outcome of a business operation or process typically expected to be achieved within...
- Tactic
- Task
In common language, a task is part of a set of actions which accomplish a job, problem or assignment. Task is a synonym for activity although the latter carries a connotation of being possibly longer duration.-Tasks:...
The terms tactic and strategy are often confused: tactics are the actual means used to gain an objective, while strategy is the overall campaign plan, which may involve complex operational patterns, activity, and decision-making that lead to tactical execution.
Discussion
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A
tactic is a conceptual action. In military usage, a military tactic is used by a military unit of no larger than a
divisionA division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between ten to thirty thousand soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions make up a corps...
to implement a specific mission and achieve a specific objective, or to advance toward a specific goal. A tactic is implemented as one or more tasks.
Hierarchy
These concepts can be defined as a hierarchy:
- Strategy
A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. The word strategy has military connotations, because it derives from the Greek word for general....
- Operational objective
An operational or operating objective is a short-term goal whose attainment moves an organization towards achieving strategic or long-term goals. In business, operational objectives define a clear, often measurable, outcome of a business operation or process typically expected to be achieved within...
- Tactic
- Task
In common language, a task is part of a set of actions which accomplish a job, problem or assignment. Task is a synonym for activity although the latter carries a connotation of being possibly longer duration.-Tasks:...
Military usage
The terms tactic and strategy are often confused: tactics are the actual means used to gain an objective, while strategy is the overall campaign plan, which may involve complex operational patterns, activity, and decision-making that lead to tactical execution. The
United States Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the military...
Dictionary of Military Terms defines the tactical level as
If, for example, the overall goal is to win a war against another country, one strategy might be to undermine the other nation's ability to wage war by preemptively annihilating their military forces. The tactics involved might describe specific actions taken in specific locations, like surprise attacks on military facilities, missile attacks on offensive weapon stockpiles, and the specific techniques involved in accomplishing such objectives.
Other usages
Referring to non-military uses of the term, in his work
The Practice of Everyday LifeThe Practice of Everyday Life is a book by Michel de Certeau which examines the ways in which people individualise mass culture, altering things, from utilitarian objects to street plans to rituals, laws and language, in order to make them their own. It was originally published in French as...
, French scholar
Michel de CerteauMichel de Certeau was a French Jesuit and scholar whose work combined history, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the social sciences.Michel de Certeau was born in 1925 in Chambéry, France. Certeau's education was eclectic...
suggests strategy and tactics are alike in that they both operate in space and time.
However, unlike strategy, which inherently creates its own autonomous space:
“A tactic is a calculated action determined by the absence of a proper locus. … The space of a tactic is the space of the other” (ibid., 36-37). A tactic is deployed “on and with a terrain imposed on it and organized by the law of a foreign power.” One who deploys a tactic “must vigilantly make use of the cracks that particular conjunctions open in the surveillance of the proprietary powers. It poaches in them. It creates surprises in them” (ibid. 37).
Tactics, then, are isolated actions or events that take advantage of opportunities offered by the gaps within a given strategic system, although the tactician never holds onto these advantages. Tactics cut across a strategic field, exploiting gaps in it to generate novel and inventive outcomes. Tactics are usually used to spoil the running context. Basically the position you and your squad follow.
See also
- Chess tactics
- Military tactics
Military tactics, the art of organizing an army, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle....
- Political tactics
- :Category:Protest tactics
- Tactical bombing
Tactical bombing uses aircraft to attack troops and military equipment in the battle zone. This is in contrast to strategic bombing, which attacks an enemy's cities and factories to debilitate the enemy's capacity to wage war as well as the civilian population's will to continue the war.Tactical...
- Tactical wargame
Tactical wargames are a type of wargame that models military conflict at a tactical level, i.e. units range from individual vehicles and squads to platoons or companies. These units are rated based on types and ranges of individual weaponry...
External links