MCDP 1-1: STRATEGY

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The first draft of MARINE CORPS DOCTRINAL PUBLICATION 1-1: STRATEGY was written by Christopher Bassford under personal contract to the US Marine Corps. It was later revised by the same author, working as a senior analyst for a corporate contractor to the USMC, COTS. After a Corps-wide vetting process, the final draft was published by the Marine Corps in 1997. Although the published version is official USMC doctrine, there is nothing service-specific about it. Rather, it was designed to address the broad and fundamental question, "What is the role of organized violence in the pursuit of political goals?" (Some background on the overall MCDP program of the 1990s is provided here.)

The published version of MCDP 1-1 is posted on-line here. It is essentially a condensation of the original draft. It differs substantially from the full version, however, in that much of the historical and other explanatory material was edited out and some more traditional geopolitical notions (some of which were contradictory to the manual's key arguments) were inserted. (This isn't whining: Ethics require that we deny any credit for material conceived in the 19th century. :-)

Bassford retained rights to the fuller, unmodified original draft. A somewhat evolved version of that draft is posted on this website as POLICY, POLITICS, WAR, and MILITARY STRATEGY.