Crossword Genius

Macron's refusal to engage a European strategist (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

napoleon

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'macron's refusal' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.

'to engage a european strategist' is the wordplay.
'to engage' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters get engaged in others).
'european' becomes 'Pole' (someone from Poland).
'strategist' becomes 'non' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a'+'pole'='apole'
'apole' going into 'non' is 'NAPOLEON'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for napoleon that I've seen before include "Former French gold coin" , "Ruler" , "Cake" , "no longer tender" , "leader in France, once" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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