text: Chapter 1
  threshold of armed conflict, transition to conflict when necessary, and exploit windows of opportunity to
  create and attack enemy vulnerabilities. The remainder of this chapter sets the context in which these echelons
  above brigade combined arms formations enable the joint force to achieve its assigned objectives. The
  remainder of this manual describes how these echelons enable the joint force and the Nation to achieve their
  objectives across the levels of warfare.
  THE LEVELS OF WARFARE
  1-5. The echelons described in this manual conduct operations that span the levels of warfare. The three
  levels are strategic, operational, and tactical. The levels of warfare are a framework for defining and clarifying
  the relationship among national objectives, the operational approach, and tactical tasks (ADP 1-01). The level
  of warfare correlates to the role and focus of a headquarters on one of three broad roles—creating and
  implementing strategy (strategic); planning and executing campaigns and major operations (operational); or
  planning and executing battles, engagements, and actions (tactical). The levels of warfare correspond to
  specific levels of responsibility and planning of a headquarters with decisions at one level affecting other
  levels. Echelons of command or geographic areas do not define the levels of warfare, although they are
  related. The specific role assigned to an echelon headquarters determines the level of war in which it operates.
  1-6. Between the levels of warfare, the focus and horizons for planning, preparation, and execution differ
  greatly. Strategic-level leaders focus on the development and promulgation of national and theater strategies
  through the conduct of global, regional, and combatant command campaign plans. Operational-level
  commanders typically orchestrate the activities of military and other organizations across large areas to
  achieve strategic and operational objectives. Tactical commanders focus primarily on employing combined
  arms formations in an area of operations (AO) to accomplish assigned tasks. A string of tactical victories
  does not guarantee success at the operational and strategic levels. Tactical success, while required to set
  operational conditions, must be tied to attaining operational and strategic objectives.
  STRATEGIC LEVEL
  The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and
  commander have to make is to establish…the kind of war on which they are embarking;
  neither mistaking it for, nor trying to turn it into, something that is alien to its nature. This
  is the first of all strategic questions and the most comprehensive.
  Carl von Clausewitz
  1-7. The strategic level of warfare is the level of warfare at which a nation, often as a member of a group
  of nations, determines national or multinational (alliance or coalition) strategic security objectives and
  guidance, then develops and uses national resources to achieve those objectives (JP 3-0). The focus at this
  level is the development of strategy—a foundational idea or set of ideas for employing the instruments of
  national power (diplomatic, information, military, and economic) in a synchronized and integrated fashion
  to achieve national and multinational objectives. The strategic level of warfare is primarily the province of
  national leadership in coordination with combatant commanders. It is expressed in the national security,
  defense, and military strategies and other strategic guidance, including—
  * Joint Strategic Campaign Plan.
  * Unified Command Plan.
  * Defense Planning Guidance.
  * Global Force Management Implementation Guidance.
  (See JP 5-0 for a detailed description of strategic direction and guidance.)
  1-8. Based on strategic guidance, combatant commanders and staffs—with input from subordinate
  commands (including the theater army) and supporting commands and agencies—update their strategic
  estimates and develop plans and strategies. In a practical sense there is a theater strategic level of warfare
  that accounts for how a geographic combatant commander (GCC) approaches the implementation of strategic
  guidance. A theater strategy is therefore a broad statement of a GCC’s long-term vision that bridges national
  strategic guidance and the joint planning required to achieve national and theater objectives. The theater