How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror [Paperback]

Bevin Alexander (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2003

Even as we head into twenty-first-century warfare, thirteen time-tested rules for waging war remain relevant.

Both timely and timeless, How Wars Are Won illuminates the thirteen essential rules for success on the battlefield that have evolved from ancient times until the present day. Acclaimed military historian Bevin Alexander’s incisive and vivid analyses of famous battles throughout the ages show how the greatest commanders—from Alexander the Great to Douglas MacArthur—have applied these rules. For example:

• Feign retreat: Pretend defeat, fake a retreat, then ambush the enemy while being pursued. Used to devastating effect by the North Vietnamese against U.S. forces during the Vietnam War.
• Strike at enemy weakness: Avoid the enemy’s strength entirely by refusing to fight pitched battles, a method that has run alongside conventional war from the earliest days of human conflict. Brilliantly applied by Mao Zedong to defeat the Chinese Nationalists.
• Defend, then attack: Gain possession of a superior weapon or tactical system, induce the enemy to launch a fruitless attack, then go on the offensive. Employed repeatedly against the Goths by the Eastern Roman general Belisarius to reclaim vast stretches of the Roman Empire.

The lessons of history revealed in these pages can be used to shape the strategies needed to win the conflicts of today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is a book whose argument would be more effective had the author not apparently refocused his manuscript after September 11. Alexander, a journalist and writer of general audience works on military subjects, challenges the relevance and effectiveness of the "Western way of war" as articulated by, among others, Victor Davis Hanson and John Keegan. That model emphasizes intense, direct conflict focused on decisive battles whose outcomes are determined by relative loss rates. Alexander's "13 rules," in contrast, emphasize indirection: striking at weak spots, employing deception, paralyzing systems as opposed to killing men. Though the research bases of Alexander's case studies are uniformly thin, he does not seriously abuse his evidence. Most of the battles he cites in demonstration of a particular "rule" more or less support the argument. Cannae, for example, is an appropriate example of a battle of encirclement. Yet Alexander (How Hitler Could Have Won World War II) also seeks to connect his "rules of war" directly to the contemporary "war on terror." In this case, the drastic asymmetries between the adversaries make the relationships to historic battles fought by more similar forces difficult to establish. Alexander usually winds up postulating a connection rather than demonstrating it. The link, for example, between operational-level "cauldron battles" like those fought in Russia in 1941, and the tactics employed by the U.S. in Afghanistan against the Taliban, is at best tenuous, if not entirely inferential. Alexander's case should not be dismissed, but is best approached with intellectual caution. As the U.S. prepares for war, look for interest in this title to be high.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Using the works of Sun Tzu as a framework, Alexander has formulated 13 rules by which wars are won: striking at enemy weakness, feigning retreat, striking at a weak spot, etc. He devotes a chapter to each rule, describing famous battles that serve as examples of his rules in action, and then concludes each chapter with a post-9/11 implication as to the rule's application to the future of warfare. Some of Alexander's works, such as Lost Victories and How the Great Generals Win, show much original insight; others, like The Future of Warfare and How Hitler Could Have Won World War II, are not exceptional. The present work could be seen as a sequel to How the Great Generals Win, as it describes many of the same battles, and, logically, the great generals (from Napoeon and Genghis Khan to U.S. Grant and Erwin Rommel) utilized many of these principles for victory. His implications for the future are not especially thought-provoking, but this book can still serve as an excellent introduction to his work. Alexander's writing style is fluid, and his insights into many of the battles original. Recommended for military collections.
Richard Nowicki, Emerson Vocational H.S., Buffalo, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (September 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400049482
• ISBN-13: 978-1400049486
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Winning Wars for Dummies" this ain't....., January 29, 2004

By 

Arnold V. Loveridge (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror (Paperback)

There is no question that Alexander has a brilliant command of historical battles. As a guidebook about what the 13 rules of war are and examples of them in real life, this book ranks at the top. And the battles are described in such interesting detail that the reader finds himself cheering for the brilliant general and sighing for the unfortunate opponent. The problem I found with the book is that it reads much like an encyclopedia. Every chapter is completely disconnected from the others and there is little "cross referencing" indicating what the drawbacks and weaknesses of many of the rules are. Using superior weapons or methods might always be good but attacking the heart of the enemy might be good sometimes and disastrous other times. To his credit, the author does sometimes say what the hapless opponent should have done.

Still, the book is a good read for discriptions of battle strategies and the background of some major campaigns.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winning With Indirect Methods, April 23, 2004

By 

E. Gartman (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War - from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror (Hardcover)

Noted Military Historian Bevin Alexander's latest effort represents an expansion of BH Liddell Hart's work. In his classic text on strategy, Liddell Hart differentiates between direct and indirect methods of warfare, and finds the latter to be by far the more successful approach. Liddell Hart does not examine different types of indirect action, however, and this is where Alexander's work comes in. Alexander begins with the premise that frontal assaults against fortified positions should never be attempted. Attacks should always come from the side or rear. This has the advantage of striking the enemy where they are weaker, and perhaps more importantly, it throws them off psychologically, disorienting, and frightening them. Alexander lists thirteen such variations on these same ideas, such as encirclement, holding in one place and striking another, creating diversions, cutting of the enemy's retreat, etc. Each method receives its own chapter, accompanied by several historical examples of the successful execution of the tactic, usually taken from as many different eras as possible. Of particular note are the examples taken from Stonewall Jackson's campaigns, a subject on which Alexander is one of the leading authorities. In writing this work it seems clear that Alexander is trying to place himself in line with the classics of military theory: Sun-Tzu, Clausewitz, Liddell Hart. Only time will tell whether or not he achieves this lofty goal. In the meantime there is little doubt that this fascinating and well-written work should be closely examined military strategists, historians, and armchair generals.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dark Art of War, February 22, 2003

By 

William Holmes "semloh2287" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War - from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror (Hardcover)

September 11 marked a turning point in the grim history of warfare. Though the attacking terrorists were given aid and comfort by at least one rogue state with an anti-American agenda, they were not acting as the agents of any particular country. They used weapons that they found "in the theater" (i.e., fuel-laden civilian airliners) to inflict enormous casulaties on an unsuspecting civilian population. The 21st century thus began with the first "asymmetrical" war between a superpower and a shadowy but deadly opponent.

Bevin Alexander agrees that September 11 is a watershed event that "dramatically changed the face of war." But he also notes that the terrorists used the ancient tactic of the ambush, a hit-and-run strike against a defenseless or unprepared opponent. Though the "war against terrorism" will doubtless offer up cruel novelties in the years to come, Bevin argues that history still has much to teach us about the strategies that win wars.

"How Wars Are Won" devotes a single chapter to each of 13 rules of war. Bevin explains how these rules work in practice by describing examples drawn from throughout history. For instance, the rule of "defend, then attack" is illustrated by battles that occurred during wars as diverse as the Byzantine invasion of Italy, the Hundred Years War and the American Civil War.

Bevin writes fairly well, and he does an excellent job of explaining why history's greatest generals won their battles, and why lesser leaders managed to lose. I came away with a much better appreciation of the genius of Napoleon, Alexander the Great and Stonewall Jackson.

"How Wars are Won" also offers many interesting observations about how future wars are likely to be waged--including the one that will probably be fought in Iraq. Bevin's book is required reading for another dark time in world history.