This essay puts Michel de Certeau's work on tactics in conversation with the work of F. G. Bailey on tactical subjects and Roy Wagner's work on alliance. In doing so, my objective is to introduce the notion of the association as an essential aspect of a contemporary anthropological theory of tactics. I approach the notion of association from three angles: as an ethnographic object and political entity, as an anthropological analytical tool and as a pragmatic, political gesture. By analysing associations from these three interrelated perspectives, I attempt to shift attention away from understandings of tactics as having to do with spontaneous creativity, cunning and reversal of power. Instead, I showcase that the deployment of tactics demands the setting up and maintenance of a tactical infrastructure of alliance, capable of making the future and pre‐emptive deployment of tactics possible.