Control (Part I): Tactics, Strategy and Grand Strategy

Abstract

Chapter Four returns to the description of the anarchist Viable System Model to focus on the distinction between the functional roles involved in the anarchist cybernetic organisation. A three-part distinction between tactics, strategy and grand strategy is developed in the chapter. The chapter presents a functional hierarchy whereby grand strategy provides the overarching worldview or paradigm; strategy the shorter-term but still not immediate goals; and tactics the immediate, day-to-day activity. The chapter relates this conceptualisation to the idea of prefiguration, a notion central to contemporary radical politics. This chapter argues that a distinction between tactics, strategy and grand strategy is crucial for understanding how anarchist cybernetic organisations might operate in a prefigurative way, showing that strategy and grand strategy can be engaged with in participatory and democratic ways.