33 Strategies Of War Flashcards
Strategies of war
Law 1
DECLARE WAR ON YOUR ENEMIES: THE
POLARITY STRATEGY
Life is endless battle and conflict, and you cannot fight effectively unless you can identify your enemies. Learn to smoke out your enemies, to spot them by the signs and patterns that reveal hostility. Then, once you have them in your sights, inwardly declare war. Your enemies can fill you with purpose and direction.
Strategies of war
Law 2
DONOT FIGHT THE LAST WAR: THE
GUERRILLA WAR OF THE MIND STRATEGY
What most often weighs you down and brings you misery is the past. You must consciously wage war against the past and force yourself to react to the present moment. Be ruthless on yourself; do not repeat the same tired methods. Wage guerrilla war on your mind, allowing no static lines of defense–make everything fluid and mobile.
Strategies of war
Law 3
AMIDST THE TURMOIL OF EVENTS, DONOT
LOSE YOUR PRESENCE OF MIND: THE
COUNTERBALANCE STRATEGY
In the heat of battle, the mind tends to lose its balance. It is vital to keep your presence of mind, maintaining your mental powers, whatever the circumstances. Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity. Learn to detach yourself from the chaos of the battlefield.
Strategies of war
Law 4
CREATE ASENSE OF URGENCYAND
DESPERATION: THE DEATH GROUND
STRATEGY
You are your own worst enemy. You waste
precious time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present. Cut your ties to the past; enter unknown territory. Place yourself on “death ground,” where your back is against the wall and you have to fight like hell to get out alive.
Strategies of war
Law 5
AVOID THE SNARES OF GROUPTHINK: THE
COMMAND AND CONTROL STRATEGY
The problem in leading any group is that people inevitably have their own agendas. You have to create a chain of command in which they do not feel constrained by your influence yet follow your lead. Create a sense of participation, but do not fall into groupthink–the irrationality of collective decision making.
Strategies of war
Law 6
SEGMENT YOUR FORCES: THE CONTROLLED CHAOS STRATEGY
The critical elements in war are speed and
adaptability–the ability to move and make
decisions faster than the enemy. Break your
forces into independent groups that can operate on their own. Make your forces elusive and unstoppable by infusing them with the spirit of the campaign, giving them a mission to accomplish, and then letting them run.
Strategies of war
Law 7
TRANSFORM YOUR WAR INTOACRUSADE:
MORALE STRATEGIES
The secret to motivating people and maintaining their morale is to get them to think less about themselves and more about the group. Involve them in a cause, a crusade against a hated enemy. Make them see their survival as tied to the success of the army as a whole.
Strategies of war
Law 8
PICK YOUR BATTLES CAREFULLY: THE
PERFECT ECONOMY STRATEGY
We all have limitations–our energies and skills will take us only so far. You must know your limits and pick your battles carefully. Consider the hidden costs of a war: time lost, political goodwill squandered, an embittered enemy bent on revenge. Sometimes it is better to wait, to undermine your enemies covertly rather than hitting them straight on.
Strategies of war
Law 9
TURN THE TABLES: THE COUNTERATTACK
STRATEGY
Moving first–initiating the attack–will often put you at a disadvantage: You are exposing your strategy and limiting your options. Instead, discover the power of holding back and letting the other side move first, giving you the flexibility to counterattack from any angle. If your opponents are aggressive, bait them into a rash attack that will leave them in a weak position.
Strategies of war
Law 10
CREATE A THREATENING PRESENCE:
DETERRENCE STRATEGIES
The best way to fight off aggressors is to keep them from attacking you in the first place. Build up a reputation: You’re a little crazy. Fighting you is not worth it. Uncertainty is sometimes better than overt threat: If your opponents are never sure what messing with you will cost, they will not want to find out.
Strategies of war
Law 11
TRADE SPACE FOR TIME: THE
NON-ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
Retreat in the face of a strong enemy is a sign not of weakness but of strength. By resisting the temptation to respond to an aggressor, you buy yourself valuable time–time to recover, to think, to gain perspective. Sometimes you can accomplish most by doing nothing.
Strategies of war
Law 12
LOSE BATTLES BUT WIN THE WAR: GRAND
STRATEGY
Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the battle and calculating ahead. It requires that you focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it. Let others get caught up in the twists and turns of the battle, relishing their little victories. Grand strategy will bring you the ultimate reward: the last laugh.
Strategies of war
Law 13
KNOW YOUR ENEMY: THE INTELLIGENCE
STRATEGY
The target of your strategies should be less the army you face than the mind of the man or woman who runs it. If you understand how that mind works, you have the key to deceiving and controlling it. Train yourself to read people, picking up the signals they unconsciously send about their innermost thoughts and intentions.
Strategies of war
Law 14
OVERWHELM RESISTANCE WITH SPEED AND
SUDDENNESS: THE BLITZKRIEG STRATEGY
In a world in which many people are indecisive and overly cautious, the use of speed will bring you untold power. Striking first, before your opponents have time to think or prepare, will make them emotional, unbalanced, and prone to error.
Strategies of war
Law 15
CONTROL THE DYNAMIC: FORCING
STRATEGIES
People are constantly struggling to control you. The only way to get the upper hand is to make your play for control more intelligent and insidious. Instead of trying to dominate the other side’s every move, work to define the nature of the relationship itself. Maneuver to control your opponents’ minds, pushing their emotional buttons and compelling them to make mistakes.
Strategies of war
Law 16
HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS: THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY STRATEGY
Everyone has a source of power on which he or she depends. When you look at your rivals, search below the surface for that source, the center of gravity that holds the entire structure together. Hitting them there will inflict disproportionate pain. Find what the other side most cherishes and protects–that is where you must strike.
Strategies of war
Law 17
DEFEAT THEM IN DETAIL: THE DIVIDE AND CONQUER STRATEGY
Never be intimidated by your enemy’s
appearance. Instead, look at the parts that make up the whole. By separating the parts, sowing dissension and division, you can bring down even the most formidable foe. When you are facing troubles or enemies, turn a large problem into small, eminently defeatable parts.
Strategies of war
Law 18
EXPOSE AND ATTACK YOUR OPPONENT’S
SOFT FLANK: THE TURNING STRATEGY
When you attack people directly, you stiffen their resistance and make your task that much harder. There is a better way: Distract your opponents’ attention to the front, then attack them from the side, where they least expect it. Bait people into going out on a limb, exposing their weakness, then rake them with fire from the side.
Strategies of war
Law 19
ENVELOP THE ENEMY: THE ANNIHILATION
STRATEGY
People will use any kind of gap in your defences to attack you. So offer no gaps. The secret is to envelop your opponents–create relentless pressure on them from all sides and close off their access to the outside world. As you sense their weakening resolve, crush their willpower by tightening the noose.
Strategies of war
Law 20
MANEUVER THEM INTO WEAKNESS: THE
RIPENING FOR THE SICKLE STRATEGY
No matter how strong you are, fighting endless battles with people is exhausting, costly, and unimaginative. Wise strategists prefer the art of maneuver: Before the battle even begins, they find ways to put their opponents in positions of such weakness that victory is easy and quick. Create dilemmas: Devise maneuvers that give them a choice of ways to respond-all of them bad
Strategies of war
Law 21
NEGOTIATE WHILE ADVANCING: THE
DIPLOMATIC WAR STRATEGY
Before and during negotiations, you must keep advancing, creating relentless pressure and compelling the other side to settle on your terms. The more you take, the more you can give back in meaningless concessions. Create a reputation for being tough and uncompromising, so that people are back on their heels before they even meet you.
Strategies of war
Law 22
KNOW HOW TO END THINGS: THE EXIT
STRATEGY
You are judged in this world by how well you
bring things to an end. A messy or incomplete conclusion can reverberate for years to come. The art of ending things well is knowing when to stop. The height of strategic wisdom is to avoid all conflicts and entanglements from which there are no realistic exits.
Strategies of war
Law 23
WEAVE ASEAMLESS BLEND OF FACT AND
FICTION: MISPERCEPTION STRATEGIES
Since no creature can survive without the ability to see or sense what is going on around it, make it hard for your enemies to know what is going on around them, including what you are doing. Feed their expectations, manufacture a reality to match their desires, and they will fool themselves. Control people’s perceptions of reality and you control them.
Strategies of war
Law 24
TAKE THE LINE OF LEAST EXPECTATION: THE
ORDINARY EXTRA ORDINARY STRATEGY
People expect your behavior to conform to
known patterns and conventions. Your task as a strategist is to upset their expectations. First do something ordinary and conventional to fix their image of you, then hit them with the extraordinary. The terror is greater for being so sudden. Sometimes the ordinary is extraordinary because it is unexpected.
