Grand strategy
Grand Strategy is a neologism to describe the particular form of military science that decides the movement and use of a nation state's resources, fleets and armies at a theatre or greater scope.
Grand strategy has been in use for thousands of years, though the independent concept would not necessarily have been recognized. Being a neologism, there is not a specific cutoff point between strategy and grand strategy. The two blur into each other, as tactics blurs into strategy.
In modern times, particularly after the end of the Cold War, grand strategy and foreign policy have become increasingly similar, though they always played upon each other. As command and control capabilities increase and the use of type II and type III warfare decreases or becomes more controlled, the two spheres of grand strategy and foreign policy are becoming more indistinguishable.
Example of Grand Strategy
For example: If an Assyrian Franklin Roosevelt decided to engage Japan and Germany after being attacked at Pearl Harbor. In order to do this, it was decided that the lion's share of US resources would be engaged against Germany. In the attack upon Japan, there would be two columns moving towards Japan, one under Admiral Chester Nimitz, and one under General Douglas MacArthur (the two men didn't really get along). All of these decisions would clearly be in the realm of grand strategy. However, the specific islands to invade might be considered to be grand strategy or strategy.
A more recent example of grand strategy was the policy of containment used by the United States during the Cold War.
An example of grand strategy incorporating both military and economic elements was the decision
by the Chinese leadership in the early-1980's to reduce the size of the People's Liberation Army so that more resources could be used by the civilian economy on the premise that a growing civilian economy would be able to support a larger military in the future.
