I can't act stupidly around Independent strategist (9)
I believe the answer is:
tactician
'strategist' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'i can't act stupidly around independent' is the wordplay.
'stupidly' indicates an anagram.
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'independent' becomes 'i'.
'i'+'cant'+'act'='icantact'
'icantact' anagrammed gives 'tactcian'.
'tactcian' placed around 'i' is 'TACTICIAN'.
(Other definitions for tactician that I've seen before include "One planning" , "General" , "Smart mover" , "Military planner" , "director of operations" .)