A persuasive grand strategy usually is simple. A grand strategy is a mission statement rather than a manual. The core of grand strategy is a view of the state's role in international politics, the few large ends that it sets out to achieve, and a broad idea of how to go about that. The details are for the geographic and thematic strategies that should follow on from a grand strategy. With a bit of effort and goodwill, a grand strategy can be elegantly expressed in a few brief pages, though few states manage that. ‘I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead’, the saying, often attributed to Mark Twain, applies to the drafters of strategy as well (though academics are not well placed to criticise others for writing too much).

That, ideally, a grand strategy is simple does not mean that it will be easy to bring into practice. ‘Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult’, said Clausewitz, by which he meant difficult to implement. Clausewitz had served in the Napoleonic wars. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, who served in the Second World War, similarly concluded that ‘in war the simplest thing often turns out to be the most difficult. Not in the decision as such, but in its unfailing implementation mostly lie the true difficulties.’ These statements apply to grand strategy in war and peace. If the grand strategy itself is already too complicated to explain to those who have to implement it, it is most probably not a very good strategy, and will likely never be implemented as intended at all. If, conversely, a straightforward strategy based on a simple idea is well communicated, it will serve to inspire those charged with its implementation, and provide them with a sense of purpose and the resolve to achieve it. ‘Action at the service of a strong and simple idea’, thus Charles de Gaulle summed up his policy in the Second World War.

In addition to good ideas, grand strategy requires clear language. Sir Lawrence Freedman stresses that strategy is meaningless without it: ‘Not only does strategy need to be put into words so that others can follow, but it works through affecting the behaviour of others.