The Strategy of the Objective: A Hermeneutic Approach to Strategy

Strategic theory has offered innumerable methods for achieving objectives, yet it has largely neglected the objective itself. Although objectives are commonly represented as a desired end state, there exists a relative will on the part of the opposing actor that resists that outcome and therefore also forms part of the final conditions. The objective is therefore intimately linked to the understanding of the other will. To address this complexity, this article proposes a hermeneutic approach grounded in the premise that actors communicate their intentions through the effects their actions imprint upon reality. These effects are changes that, as such, can be measured across the structural variables of modern conflict. In this way, they can be mapped and interpreted within conceptual spaces of competition or conflict, offering a point of departure for identifying and adjusting strategic objectives in line with the evolution of such behaviour.