The 33 Strategies of War

From The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene, “an indispensable book, [which] provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand”

1. The Polarity Strategy:
   Declare War On Your Enemies - Learn to spot them; inwardly declare war. Your enemies can fill you with purpose and direction.
2. The Guerilla War-Of-The-Mind Strategy:
   Do Not Fight The Last War - Force yourself to react to the present moment. Do not repeat the same tired methods. Make everything fluid and mobile.
3. The Counterbalance Strategy:
   Amidst The Turmoil Of Events, Do Not Lose Your Presence Of Mind - Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity. Learn detachment.
4. The Death-Ground Strategy:
   Create A Sense Of Urgency & Desperation - Place yourself on ‘death ground’, where your back is against the wall; fight like hell to get out!
5. The Command & Control Strategy:
   Avoid The Snares Of Groupthink - Create a sense of participation without falling into the irrationality of collective decision-making.
6. The Controlled-Chaos Strategy:
   Segment Your Forces - Break your forces into independent groups; make them elusive & unstoppable by infusing them with the spirit of the campaign.
7. Morale Strategies:
   Transform Your War Into A Crusade - Involve your people in a cause; make them see their survival is tied to the success of the army as a whole.
8. The Perfect-Economy Strategy:
   Pick Your Battles Carefully - Sometimes it is better to wait, to undermine your enemies covertly rather than hitting them straight on.
9. The Counterattack Strategy:
   Turn The Tables - Let the other side move first, giving you the flexibility to counterattack from any angle.
10. Deterrence Strategies:
    Create A Threatening Presence - Be crazy. If your opponents are never sure what messing with you will cost, they will not want to find out.
11. The Non-Engagement Strategy:
    Trade Space For Time - Sometimes you can accomplish most by doing nothing.
12. The Grand Strategy:
    Lose Battles But Win The War - Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the battle & calculating ahead. It will bring the ultimate reward.
13. The Intelligence Strategy:
    Know Your Enemy - The target of your strategies should be less the army you face and more the man or woman who runs it.
14. The Blitzkrieg Strategy:
    Overwhelm Resistance With Speed & Suddenness - Striking first before the enemy has time to think makes them emotional and unbalanced.
15. Forcing Strategies:
    Control The Dynamics - Move to control your opponent’s minds, pushing their emotional buttons and compelling them to make mistakes.
16. The Center Of Gravity Strategy:
    Hit Them Where It Hurts - Find what the other side most cherishes & protects – that is where you must strike.
17. The Divide & Conquer Strategy:
    Defeat Them In Detail - By separating the parts of the whole you can sow dissension & division, bringing your enemy down.
18. The Turning Strategy:
    Expose And Attack Your Opponent’s Soft Flank - Bait them into going out on a limb then rake them with fire from the side.
19. The Annihilation Strategy:
    Envelop The Enemy - Create relentless pressure from all sides and close off their access, then crush their willpower by tightening the noose.
20. The Ripening-For-The-Sickle Strategy:
    Maneuver Them Into Weakness - Create dilemmas; devise maneuvers that give them a choice of ways to respond-all of them bad.
21. The Diplomatic War Strategy:
    Negotiate While Advancing - The more you take, the more you can give back in meaningless concessions.
22. The Exit Strategy:
    Know How To End Things - Avoid all conflicts and entanglements from which there are no realistic exits.
23. Misperception Strategies:
    Weave A Seamless Blend Of Fact And Fiction - Control people’s perceptions of reality and you control them
24. The Ordinary-Extraordinary Strategy:
    Take The Line Of Least Expectation - Fix their image of you with the ordinary, then hit them with something extraordinary; the terror is greater.
25. The Righteous Strategy:
    Occupy The Moral High Ground - Question your opponents motives and make them appear evil; narrow their support & room to maneuver.
26. The Strategy Of The Void:
    Deny Them Targets - Be dangerous but elusive, then watch them chase you into the void; deliver pinprick bites & side-attacks.
27. The Alliance Strategy:
    Seem To Work For The Interests Of Others While Furthering Your Own - Create a constantly shifting network of alliances; sow dissention.
28. The One-Upmanship Strategy:
    Give Your Rivals Enough Rope To Hang Themselves - Life’s greatest dangers come from supposed colleagues who scheme to sabotage us.
29. The Fait Accompli Strategy:
    Take Small Bites - Swallow little territories, playing upon people’s relatively short attention spans.
30. Communication Strategies:
    Penetrate Their Minds - Learn to infiltrate your ideas behind enemy lines, luring people into coming to the conclusions you desire.
31. The Inner-Front Strategy:
    Destroy From Within - To take what you want, do not fight those who have it; join them, then stage a coup d’etat.
32. The Passive-Aggression Strategy:
    Dominate While Seeming To Submit - Go along, offer no resistance; hide aggression behind a compliant, even loving exterior.
33. The Chain-Reaction Strategy:
    Sow Uncertainty And Panic Through Acts Of Terror - Cause maximum chaos and provoke the enemy into desperate overreaction.