The 33 Strategies of War
Robert Greene, 2006
A Greek mercenary and philosopher leads an army out of the heart of Persia, Prussian generals lose to Napoleon because they fight by a textbook half a century old, and Queen Elizabeth defeats the Spanish Armada with almost no losses. Robert Greene builds strategies for everyday conflicts out of stories like these. Here are six of them: how to see the real obstacle, how to stop living in past battles, how to keep a cool head, how to leave yourself no way out, how to give clear orders and how to win without ruining yourself.
Who it is for
For anyone tired of losing arguments, negotiations and workplace conflicts to their emotions. And for anyone curious about what generals, politicians and film directors can teach us about everyday life.
Your obstacles are not rivers or mountains or other people; your obstacle is yourself.
Two gods of war
The ancient Greeks had two gods of war. Ares loved battle for its own sake, with its noise, blood and fury. People were wary of him and despised him. Athena was also a goddess of war, but she won through intelligence and cunning, and she preferred negotiation to battle. The Greeks worshipped her.
Robert Greene opens his book with this myth because he believes everyone lives among conflicts, whether they want to or not. There is less open hostility today, but the struggle hasn't gone anywhere. It goes on at work, in the family, in negotiations, in the fight with your own fear. The question isn't whether to fight, but how: driven by emotion, like Ares, or with a clear head, like Athena.
Greene notes that in everyday life most of us are tacticians, not strategists. A tactician gets so caught up in the skirmish at hand that all they can think about is how not to lose it. A strategist sees the whole field and thinks about where this fight leads, what it costs and whether it's needed at all.
Greene draws his strategies from the stories of generals, politicians, film directors and athletes. His ideal, in his own words, is victory without bloodshed. Even Gandhi's nonviolence, he reminds us, was not just a kind feeling but a carefully thought-out way of fighting.
The book has thirty-three strategies. Here are six of them, the ones every struggle begins with: the struggle with yourself first, then with circumstances and an opponent.
The main obstacle is in your own head
In the spring of 401 BC a wealthy Athenian named Xenophon set off for Persia. He was no soldier: he loved dogs and horses and was a friend of the philosopher Socrates. He joined the expedition for adventure, and also hoped to write a book about it later. The Persian prince Cyrus had hired some 13,000 Greek mercenaries: he planned to overthrow his brother. King Artaxerxes met his army not far from Babylon, and Cyrus was killed at the very start of the battle.
The Greeks found themselves deep in hostile country, more than fifteen hundred miles from home. The Persian general Tissaphernes promised to escort them to the border. Then he invited the Greek commanders to talks, seized them and beheaded them. By evening the camp had lost heart: some cursed everyone in sight, others got drunk, still others thought of running away.
That night Xenophon woke from a troubling dream. He realized that what stood between the Greeks and home was not mountains, not rivers and not even the Persian army, but the confusion in their own heads. The mercenaries fought for money, couldn't tell friends from enemies and so had lost their bearings. He offered the commanders a simple plan: no negotiations, burn the supply wagons, live off the land, move fast. When the Persians sent a go-between, the Greeks drove him out of the camp. The journey home took more than a year, but almost all of them came back alive.
From this story Greene draws his first strategy: declare war on your enemies. This isn't about spite but about clarity. As long as it's unclear who stands against you and what you want, your strength drains away into doubt. Once the enemy is named, you have a direction, and anger turns into energy.
Greene warns that today an opponent rarely attacks in the open. They hide behind friendliness, so Greene advises judging people by their actions, not their words. An action, as he sees it, can't lie.
You can start small: name what's in your way in one precise sentence. Not “everything is bad,” but a specific person, habit or fear. Once the enemy has a name, you can do something about it.
About the author
Robert Greene is an American writer, the author of books on power, strategy and human nature. He builds his books on historical examples, from ancient generals to twentieth-century politicians and artists.
All books by this author: Robert Greene
Terms from the book
- Picasso
- Athena
- Gandhi
- Socrates
- Cyrus
- Napoleon
- Hitchcock
- Cortés
- Hamilton
- Pyrrhus
- Elizabeth
- Philip
- Ares: In Greek mythology, the god of war in its direct and brutal form. According to Greene, the Greeks were wary of him and despised him.
- Xenophon: An ancient Greek writer and historian, a friend of Socrates. In 401 BC he took part in the Greek mercenaries' expedition into Persia and led them home.
- Artaxerxes: Artaxerxes II, the Persian king against whom his brother Cyrus marched.
- Tissaphernes: A Persian general who was supposed to escort the Greeks to the border and instead executed their commanders.
- Frederick the Great: Frederick II, an eighteenth-century Prussian king and a famous general. Prussian generals were still repeating his methods decades after his death.
- Hohenlohe: Prince Friedrich Ludwig von Hohenlohe, a Prussian general who commanded troops at the Battle of Jena in 1806.
- Jena: A town in Germany near which Napoleon defeated the Prussian army on October 14, 1806.
- Rommel: Erwin Rommel, a German field marshal in the Second World War who commanded the German army in North Africa.
- storyboard: A film drawn out shot by shot in advance: where the camera stands, how the actors move, how the light falls.
- Tenochtitlán: The capital of the Aztec Empire, on the site of today's Mexico City.
- Sun Tzu: A Chinese military thinker, author of The Art of War. Greene dates him to around the fourth century BC.
- Entente: The alliance of Britain, France and Russia that fought Germany and its allies, Turkey among them, in the First World War.
- Gallipoli: A peninsula in Turkey by the Dardanelles strait. In 1915 Entente troops landed there and withdrew after long fighting.
- Suvla: A bay on the Gallipoli peninsula where a new Entente landing force came ashore in August 1915.
- Tekke Tepe: Hills four miles from the shore of Suvla Bay that command the surrounding area.
- Stopford: Frederick Stopford, the British lieutenant general whom Hamilton put in charge of the landing at Suvla.
- Hammersley: Frederick Hammersley, a British major general who commanded the 11th Division in the landing at Suvla.
- Epirus: A small kingdom in western Greece, the homeland of Pyrrhus.
- Heraclea: A town in southern Italy near which Pyrrhus first defeated the Romans in 280 BC.
- Asculum: A town in Italy near which, in the spring of 279 BC, Pyrrhus defeated the Romans again at the cost of heavy losses.
- Drake: Francis Drake, an English seafarer who attacked Spanish treasure ships on Elizabeth's secret orders.
- armada: The huge war fleet that Spain sent to the shores of England in 1588.
- Calais: A French port on the English Channel where the Spanish armada dropped anchor in 1588.
All terms
Similar books
- The Art of Seduction, Robert Greene
- The Art of Strategy, Avinash Dixit, Barry Nalebuff
- The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump, Tony Schwartz
- The Art of Thinking Clearly, Rolf Dobelli
- The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More, and Change the Way You Lead Forever, Michael Bungay Stanier
- The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, Daniel Coyle
- The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss
- The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage, Mel Robbins
Read in Livria
