From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishscorched earth policyˌscorched ˈearth ˌpolicy noun [countable] PMthe destruction by an army of everything useful in an area, especially crops, so that the land cannot be used by an enemy
Examples from the Corpus
scorched earth policy• The rebels are accused of rape, looting and a scorched earth policy.• The intention may not have been a scorched earth policy, but the effect on some departments was the same. 