What is Strategy? A Critical Presentation from Portuguese Strategic School. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18847/1.10.2

Abstract

The strategic studies, or plainly strategy, as in the classic continental denomination, are being the target of a renowned interest, namely within the academic world. In the Iberian Peninsula, the rise of a Spanish school takes place, side by side with the consolidation of the Portuguese school, the decline of the prominence of the French school, and, as a counterpart, the reinforcement of the anglo- American schools. The present article intends to present a renowned perspective of strategy, around the general theory of strategy, elaborated from the strategic Portuguese school, of which, at the same time, a brief presentation is done. Accordingly, in the first place, an over view of the main lines that rule the strategic Portuguese school is drawn, particularly those established by its re- founder, general Abel Cabral Couto. From there, using it as key review, we approach some of the relevant strategy definitions, issued from the anglo-saxon midst, that display an overt restriction, since they are based on the prominence of the military vector, without historical, ontological, or epistemological reason to justify it. The review of that conceptual frame, will allow to present, by counterpoint, the continental conceptual frame that reproduces what best has been made in the ambit of strategic studies as an answer to the historical changes post-Second World War, that forced the development of warfare and management confrontation modalities other than the militaries but keeping the same legitimacy equal to the military vector. Lastly, we present a synthesis proposition of what is strategy and its frame, still set from the reflections within the Portuguese strategic school. In the case of the reflections that took place in the Portuguese strategic school, are relevant the advances made by Francisco Abreu in the attempt to transpose the strategic matrix into the rivalry between companies; the innovative vision of António Paulo Duarte about the meaning of absolute war, implying a new exegesis of Clausewitz, which would have been a première mondiale, besides a revaluation of the very concept of war as a positive genesis of new states of life; and also the defense of the strategy as an ethic of the conflict, prudence beyond all prudence with the final objective of cornering the war, by António Horta Fernandes. All these advances, among others, have placed the Portuguese strategic school at the forefront of strategic studies, at least as far as the theoretical foundations of the disciplinary field are concerned.