The 33 Strategies of War

Overview
Defensive Warfare, Offensive Warfare and Unconventional (Dirty) Warfare. Each part contains a differing number of strategies, each in a chapter. Each chapter has a similar layout. Descriptions of battles, political and business situations are accompanied by Greene's interpretation. There are occasional instructional sections followed by examples. All chapters end with a "Reversal" to give a brief discussion of where the strategy may not apply, a contrary view or defense. Throughout the book Mr. Greene includes quotes from a variety of sources. These are incorporated in the margins and between sections.

His blog, Power, Seduction and War: The Robert Greene Blog, has expanded many of the themes from this book—which he commonly refers to as the WAR book.

Part 1: Self-Directed Warfare
1) Declare War on Your Enemies: The Polarity Strategy. To fight you must know and identify your opponents.  Greene identifies: 2) Do Not Fight the Last War: The Guerrilla-War-of-the-Mind Strategy.  Tactics age, keep tactics fresh and always develop new ones. 3) Amidst the Turmoil of Events, Do Not Lose Your Presence of Mind: The Counterbalance Strategy. You must stay focused, define your goals and have the confidence to achieve those goals.  With this in place, strive toward that goal relentlessly. 4) Create a Sense of Urgency and Desperation: The Death-Ground Strategy.  When there are no other options, people fight harder. If the choice is life or death they have nothing to lose.
 * The Inner Enemy. Hired to fight the Persians in 401 BC, Xenophon had to turn a mercenary band of Greeks into a unified group fighting for self-preservation. They had to identify the opponent, determine the reasons for their fight and battle their own issues.
 * The Outer Enemy. Margaret Thatcher, defined her fight and her opponent.  She fought relentlessly for what she felt was right by not backing down in the face of opposition, driving her tasks to completion.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Last War. In 1806 Prince Frederick Louis of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen fought Napoleon, but his strategies were those of Frederick the Great and were old and tired. Napoleon's innovative strategies outwitted him.
 * The Present War. In 1605 Miyamoto Musashi, a samurai, had series of defining duels. He  developed a pattern for his fighting, but would regularly change his tactics to confound and confuse his opponents.  His continual adaptation of his tactics afforded his opponents no comfort.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Hyper-Aggressive Tactic. Lord Nelson in the 1801 battle at Copenhagen disobeyed orders from a self-concern superior (Sir Hyde Parker). His confidence and leadership defeated the Danish navy.
 * Detached Buddha Tactic. Film director Alfred Hitchcock always had a complete understanding and plan for his movies. He knew the look and feel that he wanted to achieve. His methodical approach, though confusing to others, gave him a calm demeanor on the set.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * No Return Tactic. In 1504 Hernán Cortés used this tactic as he removed the ability of his 500 men to return to Cuba. They had to fight the Aztecs even though grossly out numbered.
 * Death at Your Heels. Fyodor Dostoyevsky's near execution fortified his resolve to make each work as if it were his last. The intimate experience with his mortality allowed him to rise above life's trivialities.
 * Keys to Warfare 

Part 2: Organizational (Team) Warfare
5) Avoid The Snare of Groupthink: The Command-and-Control Strategy. Take command and control. Do not be too authoritarian and not too weak 6) Segment Your Forces: The Controlled-Chaos Strategy. Smaller units are more agile, mobile and deft. 7) Transform Your War into a Crusade: Morale Strategies. Create an atmosphere of fighting for something noble—a cause or a need. Respect your troops.
 * The Broken Chain. In early World War I (1915) the British attacked Constantinople attempting to open access to the Black Sea to supply Russia and to facilitate attacking the Germans from the East. But General Ian Hamilton led his command by delegating details to subordinates.  This resulted in lack of understanding of the tactical objectives of securing Tekke Tepe, hence losing the battle.
 * Remote Control. Throughout his career General George Marshall established a set of protégés carefully teaching them his philosophy of command. This created the ability for him to know and trust the actions of his subordinates.  Eventually allowing him to place generals, like Dwight D. Eisenhower, in positions of extreme authority knowing the situation would be run according to his beliefs and style.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Calculated Disorder. In 1805 Napoleon was being attacked by the Austrian troops under Karl Mack. The former divided his troops and supplied them with specific instructions. Surrounding the Austrian troops who surrendered at the Battle of Ulm with little fighting.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Keep yourself in a position of force (Sun Tzu's Shih)
 * Instill the philosophy of following commands "in spirit" not "by the letter"
 * Create enmity in the troops so that when they are apart they follow the same philosophy
 * The Art of Man Management. Be a leader 1) fight for a cause, 2) provide for the team, 3) lead by example, 4) focus the team's energy, avoid idleness, 5) feed the emotions to feed the cause. 6) reward and punish sparingly, but let the team know they exist, 7) build team history and use it to bond, 8) remove the disaffected.
 * Historical Examples.
 * 1630: Oliver Cromwell, who had little British military background, joined the military to lead a crusade of the Puritans. He recruited like minded individuals and commanded a formidable unit.
 * 1931: Lyndon B. Johnson kept his teams working hard by keeping praise illusive and fostering competition to get that praise.
 * 281 BC: Building spirit for the upcoming fight, Hannibal provided competitive war games for his troops to show them the lengths that people would go to join their army.
 * 1959: North American football's Green Bay Packers hired Vince Lombardi who treated all players equally and made them all earn respect and praise. He used the fear of public reprimand to keep team members in line.
 * 1796: Napoleon energized his troops with the "Spirit of the Republic" for their battles, often visiting troops or wounded so they would see his energy and build their morale.

Part 3: Defensive Warfare
8) Pick Your Battles: The Perfect Economy Strategy. Fight economically, conserving all your assets. Know your strengths and play to them.  War consists of weakening the other side—militarily, financially and morally. 9) Turn the Tables: The Counterattack Strategy. Moving first shows your opponent your strategy. Wait; draw them to make the first move. Analyze their strategy and counterattack based on the weaknesses they reveal. 10) Create a Threatening Presence: Deterrence Strategies. Make people think they will lose, bluff if needed.  People want an easy victory and will not attack if they think they will lose. 11) Trade Space for Time: The Nonenagement Strategy.  Retreat will gain the advantage of thinning your opponent's forces and lengthening their supply and communication lines allowing your forces to concentrate. Not fighting, when they know you can, will aggravate your opponent and increase the chance of them making an irrational move.
 * Spiral Effect. In 280 BC Pyrrhus of Epirus acted as a mercenary to the city of Tarentum about to go to war with Rome. He was drawn into a series of battles by his ego and guided by inadequate intelligence.  He won the battles, but his army was decimated. The final war, the Pyrrhic War, ruined him forever and was the genesis of the term "pyrrhic victory".
 * Strengths and Weaknesses. Queen Elizabeth I of England ascended to the throne in 1558, at that time a secondary military power. Against her advisors she waited and did not engage Philip II of Spain.  Instead she looked for more subtle ways of damaging him, she enlisted the Royal Navy to run pirate raids on his ships returning from the New World and using other less conventional techniques to destroy the Spanish Armada.  Queen Elizabeth I carefully picked her battles to conserve resources and slowly decimate a superior force.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Disguise Aggression. Prior to the Battle of Austerlitz (1805), Napoleon played scared and panicky. Czar Alexander I of Russia, anxious for revenge, decided to lead the allies into battle.  Napoleon drew the opposing forces forward to expose their weak center and defeat them.
 * Jujitsu. In the 1944 U.S. presidential election, the Republican Party, trying to elect New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, made continual slanderous remarks about incumbent Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR). FDR waited and did not respond until they made comments on his dog, Fala. FDR delivered a satirical speech defending his dog, humiliating Dewey.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Reverse Intimidation. 1) Make bold maneuvers and bluff wisely, 2) be a threat, make sudden moves, imply aggression, 3) move irrationally, create unpredictability, act crazy, 4) Feed your opponent's paranoia by indicating capabilities that they are afraid of, 5) maintain a bad reputation, mean, nasty and non-negotiable.
 * Deterrence and Reverse Intimidation in Practice
 * 1862 in the American Civil War, Stonewall Jackson acted strong and played to George McClellan's weak points focusing on his anxiety and timid nature.
 * In the 13th century, Robert the Bruce made great strides with a ragtag army against the English armies of King Edward II. His efforts eventual brought him recognition (from King Edward III).  Most of the gains by Robert the Bruce were through bold raids, swift incursions and combination of offensive and defensive actions.
 * In 1874 Louis XI of France used Duke of Milan's ambassador to France, Christopher Bollate, to carry fabricated rumors about France's suspicions of the Duke's intentions, threatening attack and irrational actions. This helped maintain a peaceful alliance.
 * John Boyd was assigned to work in The Pentagon to design a new fighter and found the politics difficult. He used a strategy of playing dumb, but heavily researching issues purposed by others and plotting tactics to kill the initiatives.
 * Retreat to Advance. Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist party forced Mao Tse-tung's communists to retreat in the early stages of the Chinese Civil War. This action had the effect of strengthening support for the Communists by uniting and galvanizing the peasants.  In 1949, the communists defeated the nationalists.
 * Keys to Warfare 

Part 4: Offensive Warfare
12) Lose The Battles But Win The War: Grand Strategy. Have a bigger plan. 13) Know Your Enemy: The Intelligence Strategy. Know your opponent's moves and do not let your motives be known. Understand their way of thinking. 14) Overwhelm Resistance With Speed and Suddenness: The Blitzkrieg Strategy. Slow methodical start with a well-planned attack, move fast and sure. 15) Control the Dynamic: Forcing Strategies. Be in control. Be assertive. Control your opponent's mind. Move them into your territory. 16) Hit Them Where it Hurts: The Center of Gravity Strategy. Attack the central point, be it the command center, supply lines, belief system. Capture and destroy it. 17) Defeat Them in Detail: The Divide and Conquer Strategy.  Look at the parts and determine how to control the individual parts, create dissension and leverage it. 18) Expose and Attack Your Enemy's Soft Flank: The Turning Strategy. Bait for a frontal attack, get your opponent to extend his ranks and in the distraction have your forces attack his exposed flank or rear. 19) Envelop The Enemy: The Annihilation Strategy. Maintain constant pressure on your opponent to defeat their will power. 20) Maneuver Them Into Weakness: The Ripening For the Sickle Strategy. Continue calculated moves in your position. This will enable you to control the situation and bewilder and exhaust your opponent. 21) Negotiate While Advancing: The Diplomatic-War Strategy.  When negotiating a settlement you should not let up on the pressure to advance. This provides you more to negotiate with and does not give your opponent time to regroup. 22) Know How To End Things: The Exit Strategy. Know when you are beat and cut your loses. Know how to win with flair and bring a positive conclusion to the encounter; reducing your opponents in the future.
 * Great Campaign. Alexander the Great developed a new strategy of looking far forward, differentiating him from other leaders. He first gained the ground he needed (territorially and emotionally) but did not increase his holdings to a point that they could not be governed. He did not fight battles he could not win, for instance devising plans to capture the major Mediterranean ports; effectively nullifying the Persian navy.
 * Total Warfare. In 1968 during the Vietnam War Vo Nguyen Giap executed a country-wide offensive on the Tết holiday. Although having to retreat from their gains, the offensive was designed to confuse the US and South Vietnamese armies and to play to the US media.  It was quite successful.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Mirrored Enemy. In 1838 the British invasion Afghanistan (led by Lord Auckland) was to reinstate western friendly Shuja Shah Durrani, deposing the current leader Dost Mohammad Khan. But Auckland did not understand the Afghan people or their culture, making numerous mistakes.  The result was his death and the return of Dost Mohammad to power.
 * Close Embrace. Between 1806 and 1813 Prince Metternich met with Napoleon in hopes of understanding him and finding points of weakness that he could exploit. Eventually he assisted in orchestrating Napoleon's marriage to Marie Louise.  Metternich used this and other knowledge to the advantage of Austria allowing them to build an army and join a greater alliance in Europe eventually leading to the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Slow-slow-quick-quick. In 1218 Genghis Khan attacked and defeated the more powerful Muhammad II of Khwarezm starting with a series of small deliberate attacks that looked like losses. He then made more serious and speedy attacks to defeat Muhammad II.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Art Of Ultimate Control. Make the first move, fight on your territory where you are comfortable, look for your opponent's weakness and draw them into it, deceive your opponent to make them think they are in control.
 * Historical Examples
 * In 1942 during World War II, Erwin Rommel used smaller units on the North Africa deserts to strike the British. He kept the units moving continuously, like ships at sea, reducing the ability to attack them. Often he rode with the front line of attack in order to shorten the information chain.
 * While working on the Paramount Pictures film Night After Night, in 1932, Mae West slowly made moves to change the dynamic of power into her court. Eventually she took over significant portions of the films writing.
 * During the American Civil War, General Sherman faced off with General Johnston in battles over Richmond, Virginia. He played to Johnston's paranoia and his overall defensive nature. He continued the tactics against General Hood in Atlanta, Georgia and took the city in a surprise move.
 * The slave Frederick Douglass, originally owned by Captain Thomas Auld, was sent to be "broken" by Edward Covey. After many battles, Douglass became openly defiant to Covey, fearing death and having nothing to lose Douglass fought Covey and achieved victory simply by creating a situation where Covey would lose his reputation as a slave breaker.
 * Psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson used, hypnotherapy among other techniques, to help his patients. Occasionally his patients would not cooperate with his therapy. He would gain control through various means including hypnosis, deception and reversal.
 * Pillars of Collapse. In 209 BC Publius Scipio attacked and captured New Carthage, Hannibal's main supply point and the Carthaginian capital in Spain. This crippled Hannibal's supply routes. Scipio continued on to Carthage in 204 BC, capturing it in 203 BC recalling Hannibal from Italy and removing his threat.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Central Position. In 490 BC the Persians planned an attack on ancient Athens they landed 24 miles north on Athens on the plains of Marathon. The Greeks traveled north blocking the pass between the two areas.  The Persians split their troops at night and attempted an attack Athens directly by sea. The Greeks attacked the troops in what is known as Battle of Marathon and then ran back to Athens to prevent the Persians from disembarking (hence the running event).
 * Attacking the Joints. Leading up to the American Revolution, Samuel Adams was continually fighting for the free representation for the colonies. For the most part he struggled, until the enactment of the Stamp Act by the British.  In 1765 Adams was able to rally the colonists around the point of "No taxation without representation". Then with the Tea Act, in 1773, Adams rallied people to revolt, dumping tea into the Boston Harbor.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Turning the Flank. In 1796 Baron Joseph Alvinczy attempting to dispel the French from Verona was drawn forward by Napoleon in the Battle of Arcola, exposing his flank and allowing Napoleon to surround and defeat him.
 * Occupying the Flank. Julius Caesar perfected the art of indirect fighting. Although there were many times when he enlisted the direct method, there are many cases where he fought indirectly.  Notably were the power struggles with Pompey.  Much of his work was done by showing Pompey's men his kindness and honest treatment of his troops.  This worked to get many of his opponent's troops to surrender.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Indirection is the key to modern day business battles (Victor Emmanuel II of Italy used the Virginia Oldoini, Countess di Castiglione) to influence Napoleon III of France (note: the book says Napoleon II, but this is in error) to place him as the King of Italy)
 * Use charm and flattery to lure you opponent to drop guard
 * Show your opponent's bad traits (Hernán Cortés' appointment of a treasurer to collect Velázquez's taxes)
 * Horns of the Beast. In 1778 the British in Natal wanted to absorb the Zulu territories. In the Battle of Isandlwana the Zulu used their knowledge of the land to surround, surprise and rout the British.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Maneuver Warfare .
 * Create flexible plans with many options.
 * Make plans that keep your opponent in check and always on a new defensive.
 * Make plans that give you room to maneuver.
 * Make plans with slight irrationality to puzzle your opponent.
 * Examples
 * In 1800 Napoleon had to defeat the Austrian armies in Italy.  He made his plans and nearly everything went wrong.  But Napoleon had made enough alternate plans and he kept maneuvering to the new situations at hand and he defeated them at Marengo where is original plans had predicted he would.
 * In the 1936 US presidential campaign the Republican Party nominated Alf Landon to run against incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt (D). Landon tried to defeat Roosevelt by supporting the New Deal but criticizing the creator (FDR).  Roosevelt waited until Landon did not have enough time to move from this stance and attacked.
 * In World War I the British tried to capture Aqaba from the Turks. T. E. Lawrence, fluent in Arabic and familiar with the tribes of the Syrian Desert, used a small army to move quickly through the desert and antagonize the Turks.  His fast maneuvering denied the Turks a target and he was able to cut their supply lines resulting in the surrender of Aqaba.
 * In 1937 Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures hired Leo McCarey to direct The Awful Truth The script was poor and McCarey had to figure out how to improve the script. He routinely made changes at the last minute and would wait to shoot until he felt it was right.  This ploy gave the movie spontaneity and drove it to success.
 * Tsukahara Bokuden, a master samurai, was challenged by a young unnamed swordsman. Bokuden practiced Mutekatsu-ryu and moved the challenge to an island. As his challenger stepped from the boat, Bokuden pushed the boat away from the shore, stranding (and outmaneuvering) the young swordsman.
 * War by Other Means. Philip II of Macedonia came to power in 359 BC. The city-state of Athens did not support his ascent. In the negotiations between the Athenians and Philip II he continued to make promises of peace but continued to grow his empire. Eventually he formed the League of Corinth (Note: The book refers to this as Hellenic League which appeared 100 years earlier) to ally many Greek city-states to attack the Persians.
 * Jade for Tile. At the onset of the Greek War of Independence (1821) the Russia's Greek born foreign minister Capo d'Istria felt it imperative that Russia support Greece.  This would give Russia access to warm water ports in the Mediterranean. Wary of the desire of Austria's Prince Metternich to keep Russia from these ports, he cautioned his emissary to not let Metternich negotiate. This failed and Metternich played to the weaknesses of Czar Alexander I and he thwarted attempts of Russia assisting Greece.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * No Exit. The Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, and the resulting war, caused a no win situation for the Soviet Union primarily due to the lack of understanding of the Afghan people. Significant expense (monetarily, politically and in troop loss) caused Gorbachev to withdraw Soviet troops, completed in 1989. (Note: A potential error in the book where Greene refers to Afghanistan's "ports on the Indian Ocean", I can find no reference to alliances that would bring that.)
 * Ending as Beginning. Lyndon Johnson fought a tough election for the Texas 10th Congressional seat in 1937. He had few friends in the party and soundly defeated the well-seasoned political veterans.  Immediately after the election he amiably approached his opponents thanking them to the hard fight and successfully wooing them into his alliance.
 * Keys to Warfare 

Part 5: Unconventional (Dirty) War
23) Weave a Seamless Blend of Fact and Fiction: Misperception Strategies. Deception is an ancient art and invaluable when throwing people off your track. Misinformation and decoys can consume your opponent. 24) Take The Line of Least Expectation: The Ordinary-Extraordinary Strategy. Do the unexpected. If always calm be radical, if always radical do something ordinary. 25) Occupy the Moral High Ground: The Righteous Strategy. Justify your cause as the correct and moral way.  Show your opponent's self-serving side.  Show yourself as the underdog. 26) Deny Them Targets: The Strategy of the Void. Remove any targets you have for your opponents. Do not create a front or make your front so broad that attacking it attacks their base. No targets will frustrate your opponents increasing the chance they will make a mistake. 27) Seem to Work for the Interests of Others While Furthering Your Own: The Alliance Strategy. Form temporary allies to meet your current needs, do what is necessary to hide the temporary nature of your business. Undermine the alliances of your opponents to  weaken them. 28) Give Your Rivals Enough Rope To Hang Themselves: The One-Upmanship Strategy. Give your opponents the space to make mistakes, provide them with assignments they cannot complete and damage their reputation. Hide your involvement and maintain your innocent. 29) Take Small Bites: The Fait Accompli Strategy. Make progress in small steps, often going unnoticed by your rivals.  By the time they notice your growth, it may be too late. 30) Penetrate Their Minds: Communication Strategies. Fight with words that will occupy your opponent, make them think and try to interpret your meaning. Use actions other than words, when needed, to make a lasting impression. 31) Destroy From Within: The Inner Front Strategy. Infiltrate your opponent's camp. Once there, you do not need to attack or show your intentions. Slowly take over from within. 32) Dominate While Seeming to Submit: The Passive-Aggressive Strategy. Use non-aggression to fight your opponent. Their aggressive acts will benefit you and garner support from others. Since there is the presentation of both "good" and "bad" traits, people normally see only the positive approach. 33) Sow Uncertainty and Panic Through Acts of Terror: The Chain Reaction Strategy. The goal is chaos and creating the lack of trust in familiar surroundings.  What was once safe is now uncertain. With so much panic, the enemy succumbs to your will, just to have things safe and clean again.
 * The False Mirror. During preparation for the invasion at Normandy in World War II, the allies developed a significant number of deceptive plans. These included a fake army in England (FUSAG) and a look alike of General Montgomery in the Mediterranean theater.  A wealth of misinformation, paralyzed Hitler's decision making capabilities when the actual invasion started, slowed his reaction.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Unconventional Warfare 
 * Use tactics that your opponent does not know.
 * Mix ordinary tactics with the unusual.
 * Act crazy but calculated.
 * Continue to think of new things.
 * Historical Examples
 * In 219 BC Rome decide to take the offensive with Hannibal. They chose to face him at the Trebia river.  Hannibal exhibited erratic behavior drew the Roman army across the river and then shocked them with his use of elephants.  The Romans made many other attempts to draw Hannibal into a fight but Hannibal did the opposite of what they expected giving him a great advantage.
 * Cassius Clay challenged then Heavyweight champion Sonny Liston to the boxing in 1962. title. Clay's unorthodox behavior and fighting technique and his nonconformist behavior gave him a great advantage in the fight since his opponent did not know what to expect.
 * In 1862 Ulysses S. Grant, American Civil War General led a battle to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. He moved troops across the Mississippi River and sent them toward Jackson to cut the supply lines to Vicksburg. This move was not expected since it would mean that Grant's forces would not have their communication lines open.  It surprised Confederate General John C. Pemberton; who was unable to predict the impact of the maneuver.
 * The Ojibwa tribe had an elite band of warriors called the Wendigokan. This band would act crazy during battles, yelling the exact opposite of their intent.  This caused confusion in their opponents and terrified them not to engage in battle.
 * For the New York Society of Independent Artists' first exhibition, Marcel Duchamp chose a radical new format—anyone could exhibit a work of art. Duchamp under the pseudonym "R. Mutt" submitted a urinal laying on its back called the Fountain. There was outrage in the organization, but opened a new view and challenged the definition of art.
 * The Moral Offensive. Pope Leo X wanted to complete construction of St. Peter's Basilica. To raise the funds for the church, he started the practice of selling indulgences.  A German theologian and Priest named Martin Luther challenged the practices in the 95 Theses saying that only God could forgive one's sins.  He argued his stand based solely on the Bible systematically refuting each of the Pope's retorts.  This effort by Martin Luther was the genesis of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Lure of the Void. Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia met with a retreating Russian army putting up little resistance and buying time. Cossacks sniped him, retreating Russian troops left behind burned out towns and fields and no food. The initial French force of 450,000 troops was reduced to 100,000 by the time they reached Moscow. The retreat lead to further decimation.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Perfect Ally. 1467 Charles I, Duke of Burgundy expanded his empire by forming an alliance with Edward IV of England to attack Louis XI of France. But King Louis XI found out about the invasion and formed an alliance with Edward IV removing the threat from the Duke.
 * False Alliances. Murray Bowen, a psychiatrist, used his clinical knowledge to resolve a personal family situation. He wrote a series of letters to family members in order to show concern for the person, but exposing a series on gossipy relations that were in the family.  In this process he actually created a degree of autonomy for himself which gave him the power to control the situation and facilitate his siblings in creating a healthy family relationship.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Art of One-Upmanship . Look for the internal rival, find their weak spot and needle it to make them anxious. Employ others to work the anxiety and make it bigger.  Get the rival to overreact and step back and let them do the rest.  When they are near the end of their destruction offer help, not to rub in the defeat, but  help show your innocence.
 * Historical Examples 
 * John McClernand volunteered as a Brigadier General in the American Civil War. He wanted fame and ascension to the presidency. He tried using his influence with President Abraham Lincoln to try to take over the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. General Grant, whose department Vicksburg fell under, caught wind of the plans and diverted troops head to McClernand for his own use. This and other actions infuriated McClernand, whom made numerous moves that alienated him from his allies.
 * Académie Française was founded in 1635 to maintain the purity of the French language. In 1694 King Louis IV of France appointed the Bishop of Noyons to the counsel.  Although qualified, he was arrogant and offensive.  On inauguration day the abbé de Caumartin gave a subtly mocking speech that was seen as such by all but the Bishop.  His eventual humiliation led to the Bishop leaving the Académie.
 * Tsukahara Bokuden, renowned samurai, was challenged by an ambidextrous young samurai. Bokuden accepted the challenge, but focused challenger's attention on the "unfair" use of his left arm. In the fight, Bokuden attacked his right.  Later, in 1605, the swordsman Genzaemon was challenged by Miyamoto Musashi.  Musashi showed up late and in non-standard attire, this angered Genzaemon positioning him to make many errant moves.
 * Bob Dole of Kansas challenged George H. W. Bush for the Republicans' 1988 presidential nomination. Lee Atwater, Bush's strategist, knowing of Dole's temper, spread rumors about his wife's, Elizabeth Dole, qualifications as United States Secretary of Transportation.  Doles anger came through in the media severely damaging him.
 * Joan Crawford had a continual rivalry with Norma Shearer and Bette Davis. She contrived two methods for steeling their thunder. With Shearer she worked to annoy her on set and got her to expose her nasty demeanor. While with Davis, she stole the spotlight while accepting Anne Bancroft's Oscar for The Miracle Worker.
 * Piecemeal Conquest. Upon the fall of France to the Germans in World War II, Charles de Gaulle received permission from Winston Churchill to broadcast to the Fighting French over the BBC. The broadcast was met with great public support. He continued to expand this small foothold by leading forces in Central Africa, building the French Resistance with Jean Moulin. When FDR's plotted  to replace him with Henri Giraud, de Gaulle fought bitterly with Giraud and was able to fill his staff with de Gaulle loyalists.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * Visceral Communication. In filming The 39 Steps in 1935, Alfred Hitchcock handcuffed the leads Madeleine Carroll and Robert Donat and then feinted losing the key and left them handcuffed for many hours. The ploy was to make them understand the script they were about to play.  Hitchcock furthered his indirect communication by actions contrary to the situation—working his actor's minds.
 * The Mastermind. Niccolò Machiavelli worked in Florence's Second Chancery. As Florence went in and out of Medici control between 1494 and 1512 Machiavelli was displaced from his job. In order to stay in touch with the Florentine government he wrote The Prince, on princely rule, and engaged his friend Francesco Vettori to show it to the Medici's.  He later wrote Discourses on Livy.  These unpublished works were a stepping stone for Machiavelli to return to favor.  After his death the manuscripts were published in multiple languages.  Eventually his works permeated the minds of many cultures having a greater communication power than Machiavelli could have ever imagined.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Invisible Enemy. Adolf Hitler assigned Wilhelm Canaris to set up the Abwehr (Germany's intelligence group for the General Staff) in late 1933.  Hitler was impressed and trusted him for advice.  During his tenure he advised against the invasion of the United Kingdom, advised against allying with Francisco Franco of Spain to use the island of Gibraltar to weaken the British and assured Hitler that Italy's Pietro Badoglio was not about to surrender in 1943.  Only after the latter did the Germanic-SS determine he was working to subvert Hitler.
 * Friendly Takeover. 1929 André Breton, creator of the Surrealist Manifesto, wanted to breathe more life into the surrealistic movement. He felt Salvador Dalí could provide that boost. It did.  But Dali's affinity to Hitler and Lenin brought the group to a boil. Dali left for New York where he made a successful career and became synonymous with surrealism.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Guilt Weapon. To protest the Salt Tax imposed by the British Raj, Mahatma Gandhi stage a 200 mile march of to the ocean. The Governor-General of India, Lord Edward Irwin, was relieved at the seeming insignificant action Gandhi proposed. Lord Edward Irwin did nothing to stop the march. But the march attracted thousands.  Irwin had limited his options since he had not acted early to stop the march and now it would be a big issue.  Gandhi had chosen his protest wisely—benign to the British and poignant to the Indians.
 * Passive Power. Czar Alexander I wanted to reform the monarchies of Europe. He used the 1820 revolts in Spain and Naples to solicit a meeting of the monarchs to address the issues. Austrian Prince Metternich used this to subtly move the Czar to a position of supporting the "old guard rule" over any form of liberalization.
 * Keys to Warfare 
 * The Anatomy of Panic. In 1092 death of Nizam al-Mulk was at first felt to be a reprisal for the attempts to suppress the growth of the sect Nizari Ismaili. The Nizari, a group cloaked in secrecy, had developed a new method of revolt where Assassins (derived from Arabic Hashshashin) would emerge from a seemingly calm crowd and kill their target with a dagger. This new form of warfare appeared to be able to manifest itself in an omnipresent form against its opponents.
 * Keys to Warfare