It is, in large part, a pre-emptive strategy.

"A pre-emptive, go-it-alone strategy toward Iraq is wrong," he said.

What he commissioned were sketches of a pre-emptive strategy; there was no detailed operational planning of the sort the Germans had been working on since July 1940.

Strategic defensive need not be passive in nature, and often involves military deception, propaganda and psychological warfare, as well as pre-emptive strategies.

We had a retaliation policy and a pre-emptive strategy.

In addition, New York's police officials were able to develop pre-emptive strategies based on the illegal tactics used by some protesters in other cities.

Mr. Bush's pre-emptive strategy became clear this week as he hopscotched around the country, putting a veneer of official business on a largely political trip.

The case, the first terrorism trial after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was once hailed by the department as a sign of its new pre-emptive strategy to disrupt terrorist attacks.

A similar pre-emptive strategy might be at work in the Microsoft case.

We need a pre-emptive strategy which takes our weaknesses and inclinations into account in our desire for a diplomatically comfortable existence.