“One precedent creates another and they soon accumulate and constitute law. What yesterday was a fact, today is doctrine.” - Junius

People commonly misuse the terms doctrine, strategy, tactics, and techniques. In the context of managing conflict, doctrine is the overarching view of the nature of conflict management itself. It is more general than strategy, and guides tactics and techniques without specifying them. 

Here are some examples of doctrine to illustrate their importance and universality, whether openly stated or simply implied. There’s the U.S. Army’s maneuver warfare, Karate’s emphasis on the single fight-ending blow, Filipino martial arts’ “defanging the serpent,” Judo’s “maximum efficiency with minimum effort,” and Brazilian jiujitsu’s “all fights go to the ground”

Doctrine then dictates strategy. BJJ excels on the ground but is weaker in standup than judo. Judo excels at throwing, but is weaker at groundwork than BJJ. Jeet Kun Do reverses conventional stance for southpaw because their doctrine is “longest weapon, nearest target.”

Your doctrine then determines everything downstream from there. Your priorities of work, your needs analysis, what tactics you choose, and which techniques you train and how you execute them.

Choose your doctrine carefully. Make sure it fits the reality of your environment, equipment, and needs. Choosing the wrong doctrine for you can cause you to become very good at the wrong things and at making the wrong choices…