posted on 2024-11-18, 15:23authored byInaugural addresses
Inaugural lecture--Department of National Strategy, Rand Afrikaans University, 26 August 1981@@The term strategy has expanded far beyond its original military meaning. As society and warfare have steadily grown more complex and the line between war and peace has become blurred, military factors have become more and more inseparable from the non-military in the conduct of war and measures to secure peace. As a result the term national strategy, meaning the art and science of employing all the resources of a nation to achieve national security objectives, has mostly replaced the older, narrower concept in war and statecraft. Especially since Mr PW Botha became Prime Minister, there have been manifest official steps to work towards a national strategy for South Africa to counter the multi-dimensional onslaught against the country.
To decide what the national strategy should protect, it is necessary to determine our national values and national interests. The former, especially, are difficult to define and call for careful research. As a result of the popular usage to which strategy has been put in daily life, indicating any action to achieve a set aim, a clear understanding of the word strategy in terms of national security is necessary. Inherent in strategy is the controlled use of force to achieve a purpose, a clash of wills between opposing parties, a theory of action, a doctrine adjustable to the posed threat, an intellectual discipline of a high order resulting in strategic discernment which is rational, objective, inventive and perceptive and capable of an evaluation of the technical, tactical, logistic, operational and political levels of the problems.
Strategy is implemented by executive organs of the State in accordance with policy laid down by the government in power. Although an interaction between these is necessary, neither should become involved in the other's field of action. A successful national strategy requires the efficient functioning of both. The political party determing policy should have its own mechanism for this purpose and should not be dependent on government officials. The German example of subsidisation of research institutes for the various political parties should be considered for this country. The very necessary involvement of the public in national strategy could be obtained if their MPs played a more vital role in decision-making inter alia by Parliament sitting all year and in closer contact with the Executive. As intelligence plays an essential role in the government's perception of the threat to the RSA, our intelligence services should be rationalised in keeping with basic patterns elsewhere to obtain the most effective use of the limited manpower available.The growing interest in strategic studies at universities in this country could result in a valuable contribution to our national strategy if academics develop the necessary expertise to produce studies tuned to the factual situation and do not depend on uninformed rhetoric divorced from reality. The interdisciplinary Chair of National Strategy founded at the Rand Afrikaans University in 1979 is the first of its kind in South Africa and one of the few in the world. The post-graduate courses offered are open to students graduated in any discipline and employed in fields where strategy is relevant.