plan of action - a plan for actively doing something

dodge, stratagem, contrivance - an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade; "his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track"

counterterrorism - a strategy intended to prevent or counter terrorism

game plan - (sports) a plan for achieving an objective in some sport

game plan - (figurative) a carefully thought out strategy for achieving an objective in war or politics or business or personal affairs; "newscasters speculated about the President's game plan for an invasion"

house of cards, bubble - a speculative scheme that depends on unstable factors that the planner cannot control; "his proposal was nothing but a house of cards"; "a real estate bubble"

playbook - a scheme or set of strategies for conducting a business campaign or a political campaign; "they borrowed a page from the playbook of the opposition"

plot, secret plan, game - a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal); "they concocted a plot to discredit the governor"; "I saw through his little game from the start"

pyramid scheme - a fraudulent scheme in which people are recruited to make payments to the person who recruited them while expecting to receive payments from the persons they recruit; when the number of new recruits fails to sustain the hierarchical payment structure the scheme collapses with most of the participants losing the money they put in

waiting game - a strategy of delay

wheeze - (Briticism) a clever or amusing scheme or trick; "a clever wheeze probably succeeded in neutralizing the German espionage threat"

incentive program, incentive scheme - a formal scheme for inducing someone (as employees) to do something

military science - the discipline dealing with the principles of warfare

armed forces, armed services, military, military machine, war machine - the military forces of a nation; "their military is the largest in the region"; "the military machine is the same one we faced in 1991 but now it is weaker"