The phrase ‘to support foreign policy’ makes the point that strategy, war and conflict should be designed to accomplish a political objective. This is what justifies strategic action and, as Clausewitz remarked, this is what determines a consequent
conflict’s form and character: War is nothing but a continuation of political endeavour with altered means. I base the whole of strategy on this tenet, and believe that he who refuses to
recognise this necessity does not fully understand what matters. The principle explains the whole history of war, and without it, everything would appear quite absurd.