Pizzas galore!

Keys to warfare

The two sides of our character, rational and animal, are constantly at war. We plan to achieve a goal, but in the heat of action we become emotional and lose perspective. The extended vision that rationality brings us is often eclipsed by the reactive, emotional animal within — the stronger side of our nature.

To the Ancient Greeks our dual nature made us tragic, and the source of tragedy was limited vision. The Greeks, however, also recognised the potential for a higher human possibility. Far above the sphere of mortals were the gods on Mount Olympus, who had perfect vision of the world and of both the past and future; and the human race shared something with them as well as with animals — we were not only part animal but part divine.

Furthermore, those able to see farther than others, to control their animal nature and think before they acted, were humans of the most deeply human kind — the ones best able to use the reasoning powers that separate us from animals. As opposed to human stupidity (limited vision), the Greeks imagined an ideal human prudence. Its symbol was Odysseus, who always thought before he acted. And this calm, detached, rational, far-seeing creature, called “prudent” by the Greeks, is what we shall call the “grand strategist”.

We are all of us to some extent strategists: we naturally want control over our lives, and we plot for power, consciously or unconsciously angling to get what we want. We use strategies, in other words, but they tend to be linear and reactive and are often fractured and struck off course by emotional responses.

()Clever strategists can go far, but all but a few make mistakes. If they are successful, they get carried away and overreach; if they face setbacks — and setbacks are inevitable over a lifetime — they are easily overwhelmed. What sets grand strategists apart is the ability to look more deeply into themselves and others, to understand and learn from the past and to have a clear sense of the future. Simply, they see more, and their extended vision lets them carry out plans over sometimes — long periods of time. They strike at the roots of a problem, not merely its symptoms, and hit their mark cleanly.

In a world where people are increasingly incapable of thinking consequentially, the practice of grand strategy will instantly elevate you above others. And an examination of its historical development will reveal the key for making it work for you in daily life.

In the early history of warfare, a ruler or general who understood strategy and manoeuvre could exercise power. But problems came with strategy on this level. More than any other human activity, war plays havoc with emotion. In plotting war a king would depend on things like his knowledge of the terrain; but his vision was likely to be clouded.He had emotions to respond to, desires to realise; he could not think his goals through. Other rulers won their battles only to grow drunk on victory and not know when to stop. In ancient times, strategists and historians became conscious of this recurring self- destructive pattern in warfare and began to work out more rational ways to fight. The first step was to think beyond more immediate battles. Supposing you won victory, where would it leave you — better off or worse? The logical step was to think ahead, to the third and fourth battles on, which connected like links in a chain.

The result was the concept of the campaign, in which the strategist sets a realistic goal and plots several steps ahead to get there. Individual battles matter only in the way they set up the next ones down the line; an army can even deliberately lose a battle as part of a long-term plan. The victory that matters is that of the overall campaign.

Strategic thinking on this level yielded limitless benefits. A victory on the battlefield would not seduce the leader into an unconsidered move that might ultimately set the campaign back, nor would a defeat unnerve him. His subordination of his emotions to strategic thought would give him more control during the course of the campaign. He would keep his perspective.

This principle of campaigning was only relatively recently christened “grand strategy”, but it has existed in various forms since ancient times. It is clearly visible in Alexander’s conquest of Persia, in the Roman and Byzantine empires’ control of vast territories with small armies, in the disciplined campaigns of the Mongols, in Queen Elizabeth I’s defeat of the Spanish Armada. In modern times North Vietnam’s defeat first of the French, then of the United States — in the latter case without winning a single major battle — must be considered a consummate use of the art.

© Robert Greene 2006. Extracted from The 33 Strategies of War, to be published by Profile Books on March 9, £20. Available for £18 from Times Books First, 0870 1608080, www.timesonline.co.uk/booksbuyfirst