scorched-earth policies
Total devastation tactics
Scorched-earth policies are military or political strategies of destroying anything useful to an advancing enemy—crops, infrastructure, resources.
Retreating armies burn fields and poison wells rather than leave them for opponents.
The term extends to aggressive tactics in business or politics where someone destroys value rather than let others benefit: The outgoing CEO's scorched-earth policy left nothing for his successor to work with.
- strategiesPlanned approaches to goals
- destructionsActs of obliterating completely
- annihilationsComplete destructions of something
- carpet bombingsIntensive widespread aerial attacks
- total warConflict engaging entire nations
military · attritions · blitzkriegs · nuclear option · take no prisoners · attrition warfare · tactics · counterinsurgency · collateral damage · civilian casualties · obliterations · sabotage · war crimes · ethnic cleansing · humanitarian crises · habitat destruction · ecological degradation · no man's land
scorched-earth policiespreservation
Maintaining something's condition
conservation · protection · safeguarding · stewardship · surgical strikes
scorched-earth policieshumanitarian corridors
Protected evacuation routes during conflict
scorched-earth policiesMarshall Plan
Postwar American economic assistance
nation-building · rehabilitation programs · infrastructure investment · development aid · restoration efforts
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