CONTENTS
PREFACE
PART I SELF-DIRECTED WARFARE
1
DECLARE WAR ON YOUR ENEMIES: THE
POLARITYSTRATEGY
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.
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.
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.
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.
PART II ORGANIZATIONAL (TEAM) WARFARE
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.
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.
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.
PART III DEFENSIVE WARFARE
8
PICK YOUR BATTLES CAREFULLY: THE
PERFECT-ECONOMYSTRATEGY
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.
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.
10
CREATE ATHREATENINGPRESENCE:
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.
11
TRADE SPACE FOR TIME: THE
NONENGAGEMENT 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.
PART IV OFFENSIVE WARFARE
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.
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.
14
OVERWHELM RESISTANCE WITH SPEED AND
SUDDENNESS: THE BLITZKRIEGSTRATEGY
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.
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.
16
HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS: THE CENTER-OF-
GRAVITYSTRATEGY
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.
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.
18
EXPOSE AND ATTACK YOUR OPPONENT'S
SOFT FLANK: THE TURNINGSTRATEGY
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.
19
ENVELOP THE ENEMY: THE ANNIHILATION
STRATEGY
People will use any kind of gap in your defenses
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.
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.
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.
22
KNOW HOW TOEND 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.
PART V
UNCONVENTIONAL (DIRTY) WARFARE
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.
24
TAKE THE LINE OF LEAST EXPECTATION: THE
ORDINARY-EXTRAORDINARYSTRATEGY
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.
25
OCCUPYTHE MORAL HIGH GROUND: THE
RIGHTEOUS STRATEGY
In a political world, the cause you are fighting for must seem more just than the enemy's. By
questioning your opponents' motives and making them appear evil, you can narrow their
base of support and room to maneuver. When
you yourself come under moral attack from a
clever enemy, do not whine or get angry; fight fire
with fire.
26
DENYTHEM TARGETS: THE STRATEGYOF
THE VOID
The feeling of emptiness or void--silence,
isolation, nonengagement with others--is for most people intolerable. Give your enemies no
target to attack, be dangerous but elusive, then
watch as they chase you into the void. Instead of
frontal battles, deliver irritating but damaging side
attacks and pinprick bites.
27
SEEM TO WORK FOR THE INTERESTS OF
OTHERS WHILE FURTHERINGYOUR OWN:
THE ALLIANCE STRATEGY
The best way to advance your cause with the minimum of effort and bloodshed is to create a
constantly shifting network of alliances, getting
others to compensate for your deficiencies, do
your dirty work, fight your wars. At the same
time, you must work to sow dissension in the
alliances of others, weakening your enemies by
isolating them.
28
GIVE YOUR RIVALS ENOUGH ROPE TOHANG
THEMSELVES: THE ONE-UPMANSHIP
STRATEGY
Life's greatest dangers often come not from
external enemies but from our supposed
colleagues and friends who pretend to work for
the common cause while scheming to sabotage
us. Work to instill doubts and insecurities in such
rivals, getting them to think too much and act
defensively. Make them hang themselves
through their own self-destructive tendencies,
leaving you blameless and clean.
29
TAKE SMALL BITES: THE FAIT ACCOMPLI
STRATEGY
Overt power grabs and sharp rises to the top are
dangerous, creating envy, distrust, and
suspicion. Often the best solution is to take small
bites, swallow little territories, playing upon
people's relatively short attention spans. Before
people realize it, you have accumulated an
empire.
30
PENETRATE THEIR MINDS: COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES
Communication is a kind of war, its field of battle
the resistant and defensive minds of the people
you want to influence. The goal is to penetrate
their defenses and occupy their minds. Learn to
infiltrate your ideas behind enemy lines, sending messages through little details, luring people into
coming to the conclusions you desire and into
thinking they've gotten there by themselves.
31
DESTROYFROM WITHIN: THE INNER-FRONT
STRATEGY
By infiltrating your opponents' ranks, working
from within to bring them down, you give them
nothing to see or react against--the ultimate
advantage. To take something you want, do not
fight those who have it, but rather join them-
-then either slowly make it your own or wait for
the moment to stage a coup d'etat.
32
DOMINATE WHILE SEEMINGTOSUBMIT: THE
PASSIVE-AGGRESSION STRATEGY
In a world where political considerations are
paramount, the most effective form of aggression
is the best hidden one: aggression behind acompliant, even loving exterior. To follow the
passive-aggression strategy you must seem to
go along with people, offering no resistance. But
actually you dominate the situation. Just make
sure you have disguised your aggression
enough that you can deny it exists.
33
SOW UNCERTAINTYAND PANIC THROUGH
ACTS OF TERROR: THE CHAIN-REACTION
STRATEGY
Terror is the ultimate way to paralyze a people's
will to resist and destroy their ability to plan a
strategic response. The goal in a terror campaign
is not battlefield victory but causing maximum
chaos and provoking the other side into
desperate overreaction. To plot the most effective
counterstrategy, victims of terror must stay
balanced. One's rationality is the last line of
defense.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ليست هناك تعليقات :
إرسال تعليق