1. the ends
   1. all countries have them either implicitly or explicitly:
   2. Implicit strategy interacts w/ its security environment. ex) during the cold war: detergency or containment since end of the Cold War, less consensus.
   3. Explicit strategy is the official publication, NSS, QDR, QDDR, and NMS
   4. Naturally, this is a source of tension and conflict since each country or organization having an end will obviously seek to attain it. It provides the fundamental reasons why the nation exists.
   5. thus, to the maximum extent, it's not flexible, changeable, and remains limited.
   6. As in most of life, the levels of theory and practice in strategy are not always aligned. explicit strategies incorporate intentions and implementation for the most part, they tell the world what govt intends to do, strategically. whether it consistently acts on these principles is another matt of a question of implicit strategy.
2. ways and means
   1. can strongly interact and evolve at the same rapid pace w/ either of them taking precedence over the other. In effect, the ways will spur development of the 'means' necessary to its realization, but the availability of new techniques will permet the implementation of other 'ways' history contains many examples of these two cases:
   2. in 1930, USMC's manual for Landing Operations that became the bible during WWII, in that ways=amphibious doctrine, means=necessary equipment(such as landing craft)
   3. in Iraq, what the number of military forces is needed to achieve the ends? the ways, course of actions, precipitous withdrawal, staying the course, more forces, and devolutio to three regions.
3. "paradoxical trinity" by Clausewitz: govt, military, and people
   1. govt is responsible for defining the desired political environment at the conclusion of conflict(=the ends)
   2. the military is primarily responsible for developing the strategy(= the ways)
   3. the people, as represented by Congress, provide the will and resources(=the means)
4. the challenges
   1. is to achieve harmony among the ends, ways, and means. if any elements of the trinity is out of balance success is jeopardized.
   2. bwn absolute war and limited war
      1. defined by limited objectives or limited means