Quote Originally Posted by Rob Thornton View Post
I find myself thinking more and more about Marc's comments about how we form our perception of reality and how we often avoid challenging it, how we defend it, etc.
If we combine this idea with Wilf's point that doctrine is, rather literally, what is taught, then I think we must end up giving the nod to doctrine as driving strategy. This follows from claims that our language shapes our reality (or at least how we communication our perceptions of our reality) and that our language is taught to us--unlike the way Athena was born from Zeus, language does not spring from our heads fully-formed. Since it is taught to us, it is a form of doctrine. Thus, doctrine forces how we undertake our strategic approaches since it constrains what we can speak about and how we can say/express it to others. This view also seems to map quite nicely to BW's staff UW approach--his technique is a way of introducing a new set of meanings into the heads of the Cerberus-like policy wonks past whom he and his fellows must move to get their agendas approved and funded by Hades/Pluto (who just happens to be the god of wealth/the riches of the earth as well as the god of the dead).
(Sorry for the excursus into Greco-Roman mythology. Perhaps Rob's invocation of MarcT pushed me in that direction. )

BTW, if we want to follow Wilf's lead and identify the meaning of doctrine by reflection on its Latin origins (docere--to teach), perhaps we should do the same with strategy, which derives from the ancient Greek strategos. The office was more than just a miltary one, even though the term is usually translated into English as 'general.' Here's a link to consider .