किसी लक्ष्य की प्राप्ति के लिये बनायी गयी "कार्ययोजना" को सामान्य अर्थ में रणनीति (Strategy) कहते हैं। रणनीति मूलतः सैन्यविज्ञान से आया हुआ शब्द है, जिसका मतलब है - 'किसी लक्ष्य की प्राप्ति के लिये बनायी गयी कार्ययोजना'। अर्थात, अनिश्चय की स्थिति में, एक या अधिक लक्ष्यों की प्राप्ति के लिये, उच्च स्तर पर बनायी गयी योजना को रणनीति कहते हैं।

Strategy is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art of the general", which included several subsets of skills including military tactics, siegecraft, logistics etc., the term came into use in the 6th century C.E. in Eastern Roman terminology, and was translated into Western vernacular languages only in the 18th century. From then until the 20th century, the word "strategy" came to denote "a comprehensive way to try to pursue political ends, including the threat or actual use of force, in a dialectic of wills" in a military conflict, in which both adversaries interact.