The New Rules of War, Sean McFate
The New Rules of War, Sean McFate
List: $23.99 | Sale: $16.79
Club: $11.99

The New Rules of War
Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder

Author: Sean McFate

Narrator: Joe Knezevich

Unabridged: 8 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/22/2019


Synopsis

""Stunning. Sean McFate is a new Sun Tzu."" -Admiral James Stavridis (retired), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATOAn 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.

About 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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lance on February 06, 2019

Two and a half stars. The author raises some good points, but ultimately his arguments go nowhere and his logic does not stand up to even mild scrutiny. The basic point is that “the West” (the USA and Britain? Canada? Germany? what about Sweden? etc - this is not nitpicking, as will be discussed vagu......more

Goodreads review by Jared on March 08, 2019

"Think of warfare like smoke: always shifting, twisting, moving. Strategists who cling to rigid views of war will be blindsided by its mutable character, resulting in strategic surprise and defeat." - author, Sean McFate McFATE'S NEW RULES FOR WAR (EACH EXPLAINED IN ITS OWN CHAPTER) - Rule 1: Conventi......more

Goodreads review by Joshua on May 03, 2021

Great read. Important challenges for military and security leaders to consider. However presentation is a bit...overwhelming. Ideas offered in pretty extreme styles. But, if you can get past the stylistic dynamics, it’s a quite thought-provoking read that I’m glad I checked out.......more

Goodreads review by Maria on September 15, 2019

Many people have opinions about why America isn't winning wars, and is instead trapped in never ending quagmires. McFate isn't going to sugarcoat it. Durable Disorder is the new normal and we need to adjust our thinking to it. Why I started this book: Another library hold that I placed because of the......more

Goodreads review by James on July 03, 2021

In his book, The New Rules of War, Sean McFate argues that the old “rules” of conventional warriors and the Westphalian Order are obsolete in this new age of disorder where global superpowers are often defeated at the hands of weaker non-state actors. As such, Western powers and the U.S. in particul......more