Strategy is one of the fields where the impact of the principles of war is strongest. Strategy, as a discipline, a way of thinking and acting, is a legacy of war from which it has advanced into business, politics, and society. Strategy mutated but preserved its military mind. 

Today we are witnessing the return of strategy to its military roots. Two of the re-emerging trends gain critical importance. The first is the character of strategy as a guide in confrontation with an enemy or rival. The second is the function of strategy to get things done and the enemy finished.Military strategy explains many stunning new things before our eyes, which are, indeed, repeating and echoing the cases of military strategy. Military strategy is a mainframe of steadiness under attack and resolution to achieve laborious and contended objectives. It also instructs in building and utilising advantages of organisation, technology, and morale.  

Working two decades in the consulting, investment, and energy sectors in parallel with my commitment to history, I have grasped the interaction between military strategy and strategy in politics and business. In 2025, I make up a course, Military Strategy for Competitive Struggle, in which I teach the basics of military strategy for non-military applications using multiple cases of military history. 

We are living in the epoch when warfare is ascending to dominance over other spheres of life. Economy, business structures, social relations, political institutions, and privacy subordinate to it. Warfare not only breaks them and influences them, but it also changes their routine to its rules.

Your business is under attack, but you cannot detect your foe and find out its intentions.

New technologies burst into your sphere, and you are ready to race for them but wonder which of them to focus on.

You feel that you, your group, and your business do not cope with the challenge of competition, and you urge an ally but get lost in choosing it.

You feel yourself unable to sort out the trends of first importance from accidents which might be neglected.

You compile long-term plans but lack a pattern to follow.

Your mind is rich in theory, but you are missing the means to turn it into practical moves.

Your mission in your sphere and organisation requires rethinking.

You cannot take in the harshness of your challenges and the malice of the enemies, wondering why they are not ready to settle. 

You turn to existential struggle, deprived of other options.

You are looking for the right place for things around you.]

You cannot explain the actions of people around you with the facts of the situation and need to find their true reasons.

You do not understand the way of your leader, but your destiny hangs on it.

It is a time to assert your position, but you lose ground to do that.

You advance from chaotic growth to structural reshuffle.

You are lost among multidirectional trends around you and wonder on which to rely.

You withstand the shocks for many years and cannot slip away.

The situation requires choosing the things to cede and positions to hold.

You are entering a new sphere and need to analyse its preceding period of formation.

You want to set up the triggers for your actions. 

The course provides a printable e-textbook, Military Strategy for competitive struggle by Vladimir Shirogorov, structured according to the course’s structure and goals;

Every lesson of the course is supported with a printable slide presentation. It contains examples and precedents that might be converted into patterns for the current needs;

The course is supported by an abundant anthology of excerpts from the principal studies on strategy and case studies in military history, political strategy, and business strategy. The anthology is divided into segments according to the modules. They have a printable layout.

1. Realise strategy according to its different theoretical understandings;

2. Grasp the strategy's concepts, such as grand strategy, military strategy, national strategy, sector strategy, political strategy, and business strategy, and their overlapping;

3. Gain knowledge of the strategy's composition and structure, meanings and factors, principles of strategy and requirements for the strategy;

4. Be able to differentiate strategy from other ways of grand thinking, such as philosophy, geopolitics, system analysis, interdisciplinary approaches, etc.;

5. Grasp the strategy's interaction with other levels of practice, such as operations and tactics;

6. Be capable of sorting out what is a strategy and what is not;

7. Understand the strategic analysis and practice it with exemplary situations;

8. Be skilled in deconstructing the events, collecting the facts of strategic importance;

9. Be skilled in generalising the facts, outlining the strategic trends, constructing the strategic models, comparing them, and projecting them on real events;

10. Learn to operate with the strategic forces, prepare, and exercise the strategic moves;

11. Learn to be a strategic actor, make up and conduct strategy, take in the strategic challenges, and participate in strategic rivalry;

12. Comprehend the strategic prognostics.