Organizational strategy and its implications for strategic studies: A review essay

Abstract

In this review essay, we investigate how organisational strategy can help refresh traditional strategic and security studies debates. Despite their shared history, both disciplines have evolved in silos, lacking interdisciplinary engagement. To foster dialogue and mutual learning, the paper uses four key themes familiar to ‘Clausewitzian’ strategic studies–ends, ways, means, and friction–and introduces key thoughts of contemporary organisational strategy that engage with these themes. Drawing on a specific school of organisational strategy–the Strategy as Practice (SAP) approach–we attempt to broaden the vocabulary of strategic studies. We conclude with implications for future research as well as some critical, practical applications that result from the interdisciplinary encounter between organisational strategy and security studies.