This book encompasses all you wanted to know about strategy…and more. It was written by a subject-matter expert who has spent his life studying, teaching, and writing about strategy, as well as serving on the Official UK Inquiry into the Iraq War. So be prepared for a 768-page fact-dense book that at many times is not an easy read. In addition, the author may carry you into strategic territories and topics for which you have no immediate interest. My advice? Read the introduction and then the last chapter before diving into the book. As well, read the Table of Contents to find those areas that interest you. If a chapter you start doesn’t hold your attention, skip it and keep going. You can always come back to it later or just know that it exists as a ready-reference when using the well-developed index. Unfortunately, especially for those without the Kindle version and its search function, there is no separate bibliography beyond the references embedded into the Notes.
While my background in strategic study does not easily compare with the author’s, I do agree with the common dictionary definition that strategy is essentially a plan to obtain a goal. The author finds fault with this, saying it is much more when he writes:
"There is no agreed-upon definition of strategy that describes the field and limits its boundaries. One common contemporary definition describes it as being about maintaining a balance between ends, ways, and means; about identifying objectives; and about the resources and methods available for meeting such objectives. … By and large, strategy comes into play where there is actual or potential conflict, when interests collide and forms of resolution are required. This is why a strategy is much more than a plan. A plan supposes a sequence of events that allows one to move with confidence from one state of affairs to another. Strategy is required when others might frustrate one’s plans because they have different and possibly opposing interests and concerns."
All I can say to that is simply that one must plan to change plans! And that “failure to plan is planning to fail.” All this involves thinking and practice to gain facility. Despite any apparent objection, I believe the author understands this as well.
Now on to the more about the book. Again, it will likely not be a quick read for most. The author develops many high-level concepts that may be hard to hold in one’s mind, making it difficult to follow his train of thought. But, again, don’t get lost in the forest for the trees. Move on! Even then, however, as one reads the various vignettes of strategic actors, one even wonders if they had a plan (or strategy, with its definition changing throughout the book per different theorists), or just muddled along and lucked out, being in the right place at the right time. All’s well that ends well? We must have had a plan to be so successful, didn’t we? Regardless, the author sometimes throws out very few breadcrumbs to show you his path.
Sections I especially liked include the one on Saul Alinsky, the “notorious” author of “Rules for Radicals,” where Freedman mentions several hilarious solutions Alinsky used for getting his way. I also enjoyed many of Freedman’s comments about “universal” strategist John Boyd, whom I’d just recently discovered elsewhere. Boyd: “We need to deny our adversary the possibility of uncovering or discerning patterns that match our activity, or other aspects of reality in the world.” In addition, I appreciated the author’s recognition that luck (both good and bad) can play an important part in results, as does persuasion, when it aggregates, orients, and shapes our friends, enemies, and frenemies.
In the way of improvement, I could only wish that the author had spent a little more on some of the simpler aspects of strategy, things like option analysis, back-planning, and concepts found in chess, a subject the author seemed to dismiss quickly.
Overall, I thought the book was very well-researched, written, and produced. I found only one easily-corrected Kindle typo (page 446: At water vs. Atwater), which does not appear in the printed version. As I write this review, I might add that there are very few highlights in the Kindle version of the book. Perhaps my own many highlights of the things I think important will somehow be passed along to help future readers.
If you need further help in deciding to purchase, take advantage of the “Look Inside” feature to see the many, many strategic topics the author covers.
Bottom line, for the serious student of strategy, I highly recommend this Freedman masterpiece.
Of possible interest: Strategy Pure and Simple: Essential Moves for Winning in Competition and Cooperation and
George Washington’s Liberty Key: Mount Vernon’s Bastille Key – the Mystery and Magic of Its Body, Mind, and Soul, a best-seller at Mount Vernon. “Character is Key for Liberty!”
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Under this disarmingly simple title but undoubtedly comprehensive volume, Lawrence Freedman addresses what may be one of the most complex concepts in human language. Moving through time and history, he discusses strategy's varying ideas, motivations, and manifestations across human endeavors.Beginning with Jane Goodall's study of primates and ending with modern Bounded Rationality Theory, the story plunges through the dimensions of human conflict, analyzing the protagonists and factors that precipitated political, social, and revolutionary movements, as well as war. Like an expert dramatist, Freedman moves nimbly to and from sequences of events as they occurred, without ever imposing a moral judgment but constantly examining causal factors and consequences. Discussed here are a breadth of well-known strategists like Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, Machiavelli, and Liddell Hart, as well as lesser-known and seemingly unstrategic characters like Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Max Webber. However, the unity and harmony of thought are maintained in what can only be characterized as the primacy of power and clashes of will. Those looking for specific applications in academic disciplines will be happy to find the foundation of strategic thought behind Business, Management, Economics, and Politics without ever getting bogged down by the noise of sensationalism or opinion.I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars because although it is exceedingly well written and thorough, there are a few instances in which Freedman meanders too far from base camp. Here, I am thinking about the history of various revolutions. There was undoubtedly something to be said about how strategy played into them, but the degree of description and detail may have been unnecessary. In other instances, he labors to fit in topics that can be dispensed. Examples of this are seen in Exodus and Milton's "Paradise Lost" discussion. I love Milton, but I'm not convinced that the epic of the fallen angels fits in here.What you should know: If you pick up this book, it will be well worth your time, regardless of your background. Just be prepared to set aside time to savor it. This may sound counterintuitive, but I recommend reading the last chapter before you read the first. It provides a roadmap to the book, so you can always see in which direction you're headed. Now that I have read it once, I will probably re-read it again to make sure I get the most out of it. I definitely see myself referencing it from time to time.
