---
description: Gaddis's framework for grand strategy connects infinite goals to present action by selecting intermediate targets that are achievable, strategically valuable, and capability-building -- as Kennedy's moon goal nullified Soviet rocket advantage
type: claim
domain: grand-strategy
created: 2026-02-16
confidence: likely
source: "Grand Strategy for Humanity"
---

# grand strategy aligns unlimited aspirations with limited capabilities through proximate objectives

Grand strategy is an intellectual discipline with a lineage spanning 2,500 years from Thucydides through Clausewitz to Gaddis. John Lewis Gaddis, drawing on two decades co-teaching Yale's Brady-Johnson Grand Strategy seminar with Paul Kennedy and Charles Hill, defines grand strategy as "the alignment of potentially unlimited aspirations with necessarily limited capabilities." This echoes Liddell Hart (1954), who first defined grand strategy as coordinating all national resources "beyond the war to the subsequent peace," and Hal Brands, who emphasizes "ruthless prioritization" because "capabilities are never sufficient to exploit all opportunities and confront all threats."

The key mechanism is the proximate objective: an intermediate target that is both achievable with current capabilities and strategically transformative in expanding those capabilities for the next step. Since [[Fitzgeralds first-rate intelligence test requires holding two opposing ideas simultaneously which is the cognitive prerequisite for grand strategy]], the grand strategist must simultaneously hold the aspiration (unlimited) and the constraint (limited) without either pole collapsing. Since [[effective grand strategists combine hedgehog direction with fox adaptability because neither pure conviction nor pure flexibility succeeds alone]], the proximate objective is where hedgehog direction meets fox adaptability -- it maintains the compass bearing while navigating the terrain.

The intellectual foundations include: Clausewitz's "friction" (the inevitable gap between plan and reality), Sun Tzu's indirect approach (victory through positioning before combat), Machiavelli's tension between virtu (adaptive skill) and fortuna (chance), and Isaiah Berlin's hedgehog-fox spectrum. Since [[the paradoxical logic of strategy inverts ordinary reasoning because adaptive opponents turn strength into weakness and success into the precondition for failure]], Luttwak adds that strategy operates on fundamentally different logic than everyday life -- the presence of adaptive opponents means "to be too strong is to be weak." Since [[the gardener cultivates conditions for emergence while the builder imposes blueprints and complex adaptive systems systematically punish builders]], effective grand strategy gardens rather than builds -- it sets conditions for emergence while maintaining directional intent.

The 1960s space race provides the quintessential example. When faced with Soviet superiority in heavy-lift rockets, America needed a strategy that would overcome this immediate disadvantage. Kennedy's moon goal was masterful grand strategy -- as Werner von Braun noted, it required a tenfold increase in rocket capability, which nullified the Soviet advantage by moving the competition to a domain where America's greater industrial base could dominate. The objective was concrete enough for engineers to work toward and transformative enough to demonstrate clear leadership. Each proximate step -- Mercury, Gemini, Apollo -- built capabilities that enabled the next.

This framework maps directly onto TeleoHumanity's challenge. The ultimate aspiration -- a post-scarcity, multiplanetary civilization guided by collective intelligence -- is unlimited relative to current capabilities. Since [[early action on civilizational trajectories compounds because reality has inertia]], selecting the right proximate objectives has outsized impact because early trajectory shifts compound. Since [[the six axioms generate design requirements that make the infrastructure non-optional]], the axioms function as the "unlimited aspiration" pole while specific infrastructure buildout -- Living Agents, futarchy governance, knowledge systems -- serves as the proximate objectives that build capabilities stepwise. Since [[strategy is the art of creating power through narrative and coalition not just the application of existing power]], LivingIP's narrative track creates power rather than merely deploying it -- constructing coalitions around the TeleoHumanity story. The strategic insight is that you do not need to solve the whole problem at once. You need to select proximate objectives that expand your capacity to solve larger problems next.

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Relevant Notes:
- [[effective grand strategists combine hedgehog direction with fox adaptability because neither pure conviction nor pure flexibility succeeds alone]] -- Berlin/Gaddis: the hedgehog-fox synthesis as the dispositional requirement for grand strategy
- [[the gardener cultivates conditions for emergence while the builder imposes blueprints and complex adaptive systems systematically punish builders]] -- the grand strategist gardens rather than builds
- [[the paradoxical logic of strategy inverts ordinary reasoning because adaptive opponents turn strength into weakness and success into the precondition for failure]] -- Luttwak: why strategic logic differs from ordinary logic
- [[Fitzgeralds first-rate intelligence test requires holding two opposing ideas simultaneously which is the cognitive prerequisite for grand strategy]] -- the cognitive prerequisite: holding aspirations AND constraints simultaneously
- [[strategy is the art of creating power through narrative and coalition not just the application of existing power]] -- Freedman: strategy creates power, it doesn't just deploy it
- [[common sense is like oxygen it thins at altitude because power insulates leaders from the feedback loops that maintain good judgment]] -- the altitude problem that grand strategy must counter
- [[metis is practical knowledge that can only be acquired through long practice at similar but rarely identical tasks and cannot be replaced by codified rules without essential loss]] -- Scott: metis as the knowledge type grand strategy must preserve
- [[early action on civilizational trajectories compounds because reality has inertia]] -- proximate objective selection matters most early because trajectory shifts compound
- [[the six axioms generate design requirements that make the infrastructure non-optional]] -- the axioms define the unlimited aspiration; proximate objectives translate them into achievable steps
- [[LivingIP and TeleoHumanity are one project split across infrastructure and worldview]] -- the split itself is a proximate objective choice: build infrastructure and worldview in parallel
- [[proximate objectives resolve ambiguity by absorbing complexity so the organization faces a problem it can actually solve]] -- Rumelt's mechanism for implementing grand strategy
- [[the more uncertain the environment the more proximate the objective must be because you cannot plan a detailed path through fog]] -- the uncertainty principle: fog demands shorter horizons
- [[the kernel of good strategy has three irreducible elements -- diagnosis guiding policy and coherent action -- and most strategies fail because they lack one or more]] -- Rumelt's kernel as the operational structure within grand strategy
- [[LivingIPs grand strategy uses internet finance agents and narrative infrastructure as parallel wedges where each proximate objective is the aspiration at progressively larger scale]] -- the concrete instantiation of this framework

Topics:
- [[maps/livingip overview]]
- [[maps/LivingIP architecture]]
- [[civilizational foundations]]
- [[maps/attractor dynamics]]
