The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder
Written by Sean McFate
Narrated by Joe Knezevich
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
""Stunning. Sean McFate is a new Sun Tzu."" -Admiral James Stavridis (retired), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO
An Economist Book of the Year 2019
An urgent, fascinating exploration of warfare—past, present and future—and what we must do if we want to win today from an 82nd Airborne veteran, former private military contractor, and professor of war studies at the National Defense University.
War is timeless. Some things change—weapons, tactics, technology, leadership, objectives—but our desire to go into battle does not. We are living in the age of Durable Disorder—a period of unrest created by numerous factors: China’s rise, Russia’s resurgence, America’s retreat, global terrorism, international criminal empires, climate change, dwindling natural resources, and bloody civil wars. Sean McFate has been on the front lines of deep state conflicts and has studied and taught the history and practice of war. He’s seen firsthand the horrors of battle and understands the depth and complexity of the current global military situation.
This devastating turmoil has given rise to difficult questions. What is the future of war? How can we survive? If Americans are drawn into major armed conflict, can we win? McFate calls upon the legends of military study Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and others, as well as his own experience, and carefully constructs the new rules for the future of military engagement, the ways we can fight and win in an age of entropy: one where corporations, mercenaries, and rogue states have more power and ‘nation states’ have less. With examples from the Roman conquest, World War II, Vietnam, Afghanistan and others, he tackles the differences between conventional and future war, the danger in believing that technology will save us, the genuine leverage of psychological and ‘shadow’ warfare, and much more. McFate’s new rules distill the essence of war today, describing what it is in the real world, not what we believe or wish it to be.
Some of these principles are ancient, others are new, but all will permanently shape war now and in the future. By following them he argues, we can prevail. But if we do not, terrorists, rogue states, and others who do not fight conventionally will succeed—and rule the world.
Sean McFate
Sean McFate is a professor of strategy at the National Defense University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank. He served as a paratrooper in the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and then worked for a major private military corporation, where he ran operations similar to those in this book. He is the author of The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order, and holds a BA from Brown University, a MA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He lives with his wife in Washington, DC.
Related to The New Rules of War
Related audiobooks
How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War Transformed: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956–1990 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China's Drive for Global Supremacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why America Loses Wars: Limited War and US Strategy from the Korean War to the Present Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crashback: The Power Clash Between the U.S. and China in the Pacific Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crisis of Command: How We Lost Trust and Confidence in America's Generals and Politicians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Future Peace: Technology, Aggression, and the Rush to War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War in an Age of Peace: U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Small Wars, Big Data: The Information Revolution in Modern Conflict Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Communist China's War Inside America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hell of Good Intentions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5iWar: War and Peace in the Information Age Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Shadow War: Inside Russia's and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kill Anything That Moves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strategy Masters: The Prince, The Art of War, and The Gallic Wars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin - Book Summary: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead And Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Founding Mothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The New Rules of War
67 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent information. He made it logical and real. I didn’t agree with everything but who am I to question.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The author makes a compelling argument about the future of warfare but overstates his case as the wars in Ukraine and Israel show.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Too much “spin” to be enjoyable. The author should be an anchor for Fox News.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Through provoking treatment of the shifting paradigms needed to be successful in today's world.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a very well thought out and researched book though I will say I have heard similar concepts before though the bit about the revival of mercenaries was a very interesting subject.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing insights, full of revolutionary ideas. If you don’t know the contents of this book, you will be handicapped in assessing any modern political situation.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Should be required for anyone in the armed forces, department of defense and especially politicians so they might make the changes necessary to ensure our survival in future conflicts. Great book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The modern mercenary and this book were awesome reads, he should write more books like this.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interesting insights into what, why and how nations must evolve to win future wars!