La Estrategia de la Distracción en Redes de Comunicación

El público, las comunidades, las personas están sumamente interesadas en conflictos de orden social, económico, político, cultural, ambiental, etc. A las personas les fascina la noticia sensacionalista en estos campos, no obstante, existe otro grupo social al que este tipo de conflicto le afecta en sus intereses de orden político o económico. Los medios y redes de comunicación son el instrumento de control social de las comunidades, de las personas y del público.

Para desviar el foco de atención hacia una noticia - un gran conflicto o problema social - es necesario aplicar la estrategia de la distracción. Para ello, debemos crear un conflicto o varios conflictos (noticias) que seduzcan al público, noticias frescas que fascinen al público por el seguimiento que se hace a través de los medios y redes de comunicación.

Mediante la estrategia de la distracción desviamos la atención y el interés del público, de las comunidades y las personas hacia conflictos y problemas que hemos creado como foco de atención. De esta manera, minimizamos los efectos destructivos hacia los personajes del problema principal y protegemos su imagen, su prestigio. 

Es importante destacar, que los problemas importantes y los cambios decididos por las élites políticas y económicas, mediante la técnica del diluvio o inundación de continuas distracciones de noticias e informaciones sensacionalistas producen entretenimiento al público.

La estrategia de la distracción es indudablemente un arma poderosa para los medios de comunicación y las redes sociales en Internet, aplicarla provoca distracción e impide al público interesarse por los conocimientos esenciales de temas altamente importantes para las élites políticas y económicas de una sociedad.

Crear entretenimiento mediático sobre nuevos conflictos con noticias sensacionalistas es un arma infalible para capturar la atención y el interés del público. La distracción como estrategia aleja a ciertos actores del conflicto o problema para así dar curso a una salida o solución elegante de los conflictos.

También es necesario, mantener y conservar el entretenimiento mediático por determinados lapsos de tiempo. Se tiene que cautivar la atención del público por lapsos de tiempo determinados. Alejándolos de los conflictos y saciando su morbo con lo que quieren ver, escuchar y leer en los medios y las redes de comunicación. 

Siembra incertidumbre y pánico con actos de terror: Estrategia de reacción en cadena

SOW UNCERTAINTY AND PANIC
THROUGH ACTS OF TERROR
THE CHAIN-REACTION STRATEGY

Terror is the ultimate way to paralyze a people's will
to resist and destroy their ability to plan a strategic
response. Such power is gained through sporadic
acts of violence that create a constant feeling of
threat, incubating a fear that spreads throughout the
public sphere. The goal in a terror campaign is not
battlefield victory but causing maximum chaos and
provoking the other side into desperate
overreaction. Melting invisibly into the population,
tailoring their actions for the mass media, the
strategists of terror create the illusion that they are
everywhere and therefore that they are far more
powerful than they really are. It is a war of nerves.
The victims of terror must not succumb to fear or
even anger; to plot the most effective
counterstrategy, they must stay balanced. In the face
of a terror campaign, one's rationality is the last line
of defense.
Robert Greene


The basis of Mongol warfare was unadulterated
terror. Massacre, rapine and torture were the
price of defeat, whether enforced or
negotiated.... The whole apparatus of terror was
remorselessly applied to sap the victim's will to
resist, and in practical terms this policy of
"frightfulness" certainly paid short-term
dividends. Whole armies were known to
dissolve into fear-ridden fragments at the news
of the approach of the toumans .... Many
enemies were paralysed...before a [Mongol]
army crossed their frontiers.
THE ART OF WARFARE ON LAND, DAVID
CHANDLER, 1974

Domina mientras aparentas sumisión: Estrategia de la agresión pasiva

DOMINATE WHILE SEEMING TO SUBMIT
THE PASSIVE-AGGRESSION STRATEGY

Any attempt to bend people to your will is a form of
aggression. And in a world where political
considerations are paramount, the most effective
form of aggression is the best-hidden one:
aggression behind a compliant, even loving exterior.
To follow the passive-aggressive strategy, you must
seem to go along with people, offering no resistance.
But actually you dominate the situation. You are
noncommittal, even a little helpless, but that only
means that everything revolves around you. Some
people may sense what you are up to and get angry.
Don't worry--just make sure you have disguised your
aggression enough that you can deny it exists. Do it
right and they will feel guilty for accusing you.
Passive aggression is a popular strategy; you must
learn how to defend yourself against the vast legions
of passive-aggressive warriors who will assail you in
your daily life.
Robert Greene


Gandhi and his associates repeatedly deplored
the inability of their people to give organized,
effective, violent resistance against injustice
and tyranny. His own experience was
corroborated by an unbroken series of
reiterations from all the leaders of India--that
India could not practice physical warfare against
her enemies. Many reasons were given,
including weakness, lack of arms, having been
beaten into submission, and other arguments of
a similar nature....... Confronted with the issue of
what means he could employ against the
British, we come to the other criteria previously
mentioned; that the kind of means selected and
how they can be used is significantly dependent
upon the face of the enemy, or the character of
his opposition. Gandhi's opposition not only
made the effective use of passive resistance
possible but practically invited it. His enemy
was a British administration characterized by an
old, aristocratic, liberal tradition, one which
granted a good deal of freedom to its colonials
and which always had operated on a pattern of
using, absorbing, seducing, or destroying,
through flattery or corruption, the revolutionary
leaders who arose from the colonial ranks. This
was the kind of opposition that would have
tolerated and ultimately capitulated before the
tactic of passive resistance.
RULES FOR RADICALS, SAUL D. ALINSKY,
1971

Destruye desde dentro: Estrategia del frente interno

DESTROY FROM WITHIN
THE INNER-FRONT STRATEGY

A war can only really be fought against an enemy
who shows himself. By infiltrating your opponents'
ranks, working from within to bring them down, you
give them nothing to see or react against--the
ultimate advantage. From within, you also learn their
weaknesses and open up possibilities of sowing
internal dissension. So hide your hostile intentions.
To take something you want, do not fight those who
have it, but rather join them--then either slowly make
it your own or wait for the moment to stage a coup
d'etat. No structure can stand for long when it rots
from within.
Robert Greene


Athene now inspired Prylis, son of Hermes, to
suggest that entry should be gained into Troy
by means of a wooden horse; and Epeius, son
of Panopeus, a Phocian from Parnassus,
volunteered to build one under Athene's
supervision. Afterwards, of course, Odysseus
claimed all the credit for this stratagem......
[Epeius] built an enormous hollow horse of fir
planks, with a trap-door fitted into one flank, and
large letters cut on the other which consecrated
it to Athene: "In thankful anticipation of a safe
return to their homes, the Greeks dedicate this
offering to the Goddess." Odysseus persuaded
the bravest of the Greeks to climb fully armed
up a rope-ladder and through the trap-door into
the belly of the horse.... Among them were
Menelaus, Odysseus, Diomedes, Sthenelus,
Acamas, Thoas, and Neoptolemus. Coaxed,
threatened, and bribed, Epeius himself joined
the party. He climbed up last, drew the ladder in
after him and, since he alone knew how to work
the trap-door, took his seat beside the lock. At
nightfall, the remaining Greeks under
Agamemnon followed Odysseus's instructions,
which were to burn their camp, put out to sea
and wait off Tenedos and the Calydnian Islands
until the following evening....... At the break of
day, Trojan scouts reported that the camp lay in
ashes and that the Greeks had departed,
leaving a huge horse on the seashore. Priam
and several of his sons went out to view it and,
as they stood staring in wonder, Thymoetes was
the first to break the silence. "Since this is a gift
to Athene," he said, "I propose that we take it
into Troy and haul it up to her citadel." "No, no!"
cried Capys. "Athene favoured the Greeks too
long; we must either burn it at once or break it
open to see what the belly contains." But Priam
declared: "Thymoetes is right. We will fetch it in
on rollers. Let nobody desecrate Athene's
property." The horse proved too broad to be
squeezed through the gates. Even when the wall
had been breached, it stuck four times. With
enormous efforts the Trojans then hauled it up
to the citadel; but at least took the precaution of
repairing the breach behind them.... At
midnight...Odysseus ordered Epeius to unlock
the trapdoor.... Now the Greeks poured silently
through the moonlit streets, broke into the
unguarded houses, and cut the throats of the
Trojans as they slept.
THE GREEK MYTHS, VOL. 2, ROBERT
GRAVES, 1955

Penetra en sus mentes: Estrategias de comunicación

PENETRATE THEIR MINDS
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Communication is a kind of war, its field of battle the
resistant and defensive minds of the people you
want to influence. The goal is to advance, to
penetrate their defenses and occupy their minds.
Anything else is ineffective communication, selfindulgent
talk. Learn to infiltrate your ideas behind
enemy lines, sending messages through little
details, luring people into coming to the conclusions
you desire and into thinking they've gotten there by
themselves. Some you can trick by cloaking your
extraordinary ideas in ordinary forms; others, more
resistant and dull, must be awoken with extreme
language that bristles with newness. At all cost,
avoid language that is static, preachy, and overly
personal. Make your words a spark for action, not
passive contemplation.
Robert Greene


Yoriyasu was a swaggering and aggressive
samurai.... In the spring of 1341 he was
transferred from Kofu to Kamakura, where he
visited Master Toden, the 45th teacher at
Kenchoji, to ask about Zen. The teacher said, "It
is to manifest directly the Great Action in the
hundred concerns of life. When it is loyalty as a
samurai, it is the loyalty of Zen. 'Loyalty' is
written with the Chinese character made up of
'centre' and 'heart,' so it means the lord in the
centre of the man. There must be no wrong
passions. But when this old priest looks at the
samurai today, there are some whose heart
centre leans towards name and money, and
others where it is towards wine and lust, and with
others it is inclined towards power and bravado.
They are all on those slopes, and cannot have
a centred heart; how could they have loyalty to
the state? If you, Sir, wish to practise Zen, first of
all practise loyalty and do not slip into wrong
desires." The warrior said, "Our loyalty is direct
Great Action on the battlefield. What need have
we for sermons from a priest?" The teacher
replied, "You, Sir, are a hero in strife, I am a
gentleman of peace--we can have nothing to
say to each other." The warrior then drew his
sword and said, "Loyalty is in the hero's sword,
and if you do not know this, you should not talk
of loyalty." The teacher replied, "This old priest
has the treasure sword of the Diamond King,
and if you do not know it, you should not talk of
the source of loyalty." The samurai said,
"Loyalty of your Diamond Sword--what is the
use of that sort of thing in actual fighting?" The
teacher jumped forward and gave one Katzu!
shout, giving the samurai such a shock that he
lost consciousness. After some time the teacher
shouted again and the samurai at once
recovered. The teacher said, "The loyalty in the
hero's sword, where is it? Speak!" The samurai
was over-awed; he apologized and took his
departure.
SAMURAI ZEN: THE WARRIOR KOANS,
TREVOR LEGGETT, 1985

Avanza a pequeños mordiscos: Estrategia del hecho consumado

TAKE SMALL BITES
THE FAIT ACCOMPLI STRATEGY

If you seem too ambitious, you stir up resentment in
other people; overt power grabs and sharp rises to
the top are dangerous, creating envy, distrust, and
suspicion. Often the best solution is to take small
bites, swallow little territories, playing upon people's
relatively short attention spans. Stay under the radar
and they won't see your moves. And if they do, it
may already be too late; the territory is yours, a fait
accompli. You can always claim you acted out of
self-defense. Before people realize it, you have
accumulated an empire.
Robert Greene


Chien/Development (Gradual Progress)
This hexagram is made up of Sun (wood,
penetration) above, i.e., without, and Ken
(mountain, stillness) below, i.e., within. A tree on
a mountain develops slowly according to the law
of its being and consequently stands firmly
rooted. This gives the idea of a development
that proceeds gradually, step by step. The
attributes of the trigrams also point to this: within
is tranquility, which guards against precipitate
actions, and without is penetration, which makes
development and progress possible.
THE I CHING, CHINA, CIRCA EIGHTH
CENTURY B.C.

Entrega a tus rivales cuerda suficiente para que se ahorquen ellos mismos: la Estrategia de superar a los demás

GIVE YOUR RIVALS ENOUGH ROPE
TO HANG THEMSELVES
THE ONE-UPMANSHIP STRATEGY

Life's greatest dangers often come not from external
enemies but from our supposed colleagues and
friends, who pretend to work for the common cause
while scheming to sabotage us and steal our ideas
for their gain. Although, in the court in which you
serve, you must maintain the appearance of
consideration and civility, you also must learn to
defeat these people. Work to instill doubts and
insecurities in such rivals, getting them to think too
much and act defensively. Bait them with subtle
challenges that get under their skin, triggering an
overreaction, an embarrassing mistake. The victory
you are after is to isolate them. Make them hang
themselves through their own self-destructive
tendencies, leaving you blameless and clean.
Robert Greene


Life is war against the malice of men...
BALTASAR GRACIAN, 1601-58

Never interfere with an enemy that is in the
process of committing suicide...
--Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

There are other ways to fray nerves. During the
Gulf War, President Bush kept pronouncing the
name of the Iraqi leader as "SAD-am," which
loosely means "shoeshine boy." On Capitol
Hill, the ritual mispronunciation of a member's
name is a time-tested way to rattle opponents or
haze newcomers. Lyndon Johnson was a
master of the practice. When Johnson was
Senate majority leader, writes J. McIver
Weatherford, he applied it with junior members
who voted the wrong way: "While slapping the
young chap on the back and telling him he
understood, Johnson would break his name into
shreds as a metaphorical statement of what
would happen if the disloyalty persisted.
THE ART OF POLITICAL WARFARE, JOHN
PITNEY, JR., 2000

Aparenta trabajar en interés de los demás mientras favoreces los tuyos: Estrategia de la alianza

SEEM TO WORK FOR THE
INTERESTS OF OTHERS WHILE
FURTHERING YOUR OWN
THE ALLIANCE STRATEGY

The best way to advance your cause with the
minimum of effort and bloodshed is to create a
constantly shifting network of alliances, getting
others to compensate for your deficiencies, do your
dirty work, fight your wars, spend energy pulling you
forward. The art is in choosing those allies who fit the
needs of the moment and fill the gaps in your power.
Give them gifts, offer them friendship, help them in
time of need--all to blind them to reality and put
them under subtle obligation to you. At the same
time, work to sow dissension in the alliances of
others, weakening your enemies by isolating them.
While forming convenient coalitions, keep yourself
free of negative entanglements.
Robert Greene


Since in all her decisions, whether by chance or
by choice, Rome took all steps necessary to
make herself great, she did not overlook fraud.
She could not at the start have been more
deceitful than she was in the means she took,
as we were saying just now, to acquire allies,
since under this title she made them all her
servants, as was the case with the Latins and
other peoples round about. For she first availed
herself of their arms in order to subjugate
neighbouring peoples and to build up her
reputation as a state, and then, having subdued
them, she increased to such an extent that she
could beat anyone. Nor would the Latins ever
have realised that in reality they were mere
slaves, if they had not seen the Samnites twice
defeated and forced to accept Rome's terms.
THE DISCOURSES, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI,
1520

Niégales los objetivos: Estrategia del Vacío

DENY THEM TARGETS
THE STRATEGY OF THE VOID

The feeling of emptiness or void--silence, isolation,
nonengagement with others--is for most people
intolerable. As a human weakness, that fear offers
fertile ground for a powerful strategy: give your
enemies no target to attack, be dangerous but
elusive and invisible, then watch as they chase you
into the void. This is the essence of guerrilla warfare.
Instead of frontal battles, deliver irritating but
damaging side attacks and pinprick bites. Frustrated
at their inability to use their strength against your
vaporous campaign, your opponents will grow
irrational and exhausted. Make your guerrilla war
part of a grand political cause--a people's war--that
crests in an irresistible revolution.
Robert Greene


In addition to wasting an ever-increasing
proportion of French manpower, the elusive
Russian tactics also contributed to the mental
as well as physical exhaustion of Napolean's
forces. Tip and run raids by small bands of
Cossacks were continuous and exercised a
baleful influence far in excess of the military
danger they represented. The French army
became increasingly subject to fits of the jitters.
Captain Roeder noted one typical example in
his diary. The Hessian troops were mustering
for parade before the Emperor's quarters at
Vitebsk on August 17, when "everything was
suddenly thrown into ridiculous uproar because
a few Cossacks had been sighted, who were
said to have carried off a forager. The entire
garrison sprang to arms, and when they had
ridden out it was discovered that we were really
surrounded by only a few dozen Cossacks who
were dodging about hither and thither. In this
way they will be able to bring the whole garrison
to hospital in about fourteen days without losing
a single man.
THE CAMPAIGNS OF NAPOLEON, DAVID G.
CHANDLER, 1966

Ocupa el elevado terreno moral: Estrategia de la Rectitud

OCCUPY THE MORAL HIGH GROUND
THE RIGHTEOUS STRATEGY

In a political world, the cause you are fighting for
must seem more just than the enemy's. Think of this
as moral terrain that you and the other side are
fighting over; by questioning your enemies' motives
and making them appear evil, you can narrow their
base of support and room to maneuver. Aim at the
soft spots in their public image, exposing any
hypocrisies on their part. Never assume that the
justice of your cause is self-evident; publicize and
promote it. When you yourself come under moral
attack from a clever enemy, do not whine or get
angry; fight fire with fire. If possible, position yourself
as the underdog, the victim, the martyr. Learn to
inflict guilt as a moral weapon.
Robert Greene


The central feature of the "exterior maneuver" is
to assure for oneself the maximum freedom of
action while at the same time paralysing the
enemy by a multitude of deterrent checks,
somewhat as the Lilliputians tied up Gulliver. As
with all operations designed to deter, action will
of course be primarily psychological; political,
economic, diplomatic and military measures
will all be combined towards the same end. The
procedures employed to achieve this deterrent
effect range from the most subtle to the most
brutal: appeal will be made to the legal formulae
of national and international law, play will be
made with moral and humanitarian
susceptibilities and there will be attempts to
prick the enemy's conscience by making him
doubtful of the justice of his cause. By these
methods, opposition from some section of the
enemy's internal public opinion will be roused
and at the same time some sector of
international public opinion will be whipped up;
the result will be a real moral coalition and
attempts will be made to co-opt the more
unsophisticated sympathizers by arguments
based upon their own preconceived ideas. This
climate of opinion will be exploited at the United
Nations, for instance, or at other international
gatherings; primarily, however, it will be used as
a threat to prevent the enemy undertaking some
particular action.... It is a point worth noting that,
just as in military operations one captures a
position on the ground and thereby denies it to
the enemy, on the psychological plane it is
possible to take over abstract positions and
equally deny them to the other side. The
[leaders of the] Soviet Union for instance,...have
turned into their own preserve the peace
platform, that of the abolition of atomic weapons
(while themselves continuing to develop them)
and that of anti-colonialism while themselves
ruling the only colonial empire still in
existence.... It may therefore be that these
ideological positions occupied by the forces of
Marxism may one day be "conquered" by the
West; but this presupposes that the latter in their
indirect strategy have learned the value of
thinking and calculating instead of merely trying
to apply juridical or moral principles which their
enemy can use against them at every turn.
INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGY, ANDRE

Emprende el curso de acción que menos se espere: la estrategia de lo (extra) ordinario

TAKE THE LINE OF LEAST
EXPECTATION
THE ORDINARY-EXTRAORDINARY STRATEGY

People expect your behavior to conform to known
patterns and conventions. Your task as a strategist
is to upset their expectations. Surprise them and
chaos and unpredictability--which they try
desperately to keep at bay--enter their world, and in
the ensuing mental disturbance, their defenses are
down and they are vulnerable. First, do something
ordinary and conventional to fix their image of you,
then hit them with the extraordinary. The terror is
greater for being so sudden. Never rely on an
unorthodox strategy that worked before--it is
conventional the second time around. Sometimes
the ordinary is extraordinary because it is
unexpected.
Robert Greene


The chief characteristic of fashion is to impose
and suddenly to accept as a new rule or norm
what was, until a minute before, an exception or
whim, then to abandon it again after it has
become a commonplace, everybody's "thing."
Fashion's task, in brief, is to maintain a
continual process of standardization: putting a
rarity or novelty into general and universal use,
then passing on to another rarity or novelty
when the first has ceased to be such.... Only
modern art, because it expresses the avantgarde
as its own extreme or supreme moment,
or simply because it is the child of the romantic
aesthetic of originality and novelty, can
consider as the typical--and perhaps sole--form
of the ugly what we might call ci-devant beauty,
the beauty of the ancien regime, ex-beauty.
Classical art, through the method of imitation
and the practice of repetition, tends toward the
ideal of renewing, in the sense of integration
and perfection. But for the modern art in
general, and for avant-garde in particular, the
only irremediable and absolute aesthetic error
is a traditional artistic creation, an art that
imitates and repeats itself. From the anxious
modern longing for what Remy de Gourmont
chose to call, suggestively, "le beau inedit"
derives that sleepless and fevered
experimentation which is one of the most
characteristic manifestations of the avant-garde;
its assiduous labor is an eternal web of
Penelope, with the weave of its forms remade
every day and unmade every night. Perhaps
Ezra Pound intended to suggest both the
necessity and the difficulty of such an
undertaking when he once defined the beauty of
art as "a brief gasp between one cliche and
another." The connection between the avantgarde
and fashion is therefore evident: fashion
too is a Penelope's web; fashion too passes
through the phase of novelty and strangeness,
surprise and scandal, before abandoning the
new forms when they become cliche, kitsch,
stereotype. Hence the profound truth of
Baudelaire's paradox, which gives to genius the
task of creating stereotypes. And from that
follows, by the principle of contradiction inherent
in the obsessive cult of genius in modern
culture, that the avant-garde is condemned to
conquer, through the influence of fashion, that
very popularity it once disdained--and this is the
beginning of its end. In fact, this is the
inevitable, inexorable destiny of each
movement: to rise up against the newly
outstripped fashion of an old avant-garde and to
die when a new fashion, movement, or avantgarde
appears.
THE THEORY OF THE AVANT-GARDE,
RENATO POGGIOLI, 1968

Urde una mezcla perfecta de realidad y ficción: Estrategia de falsa percepción

WEAVE A SEAMLESS BLEND OF
FACT AND FICTION
MISPERCEPTION STRATEGIES

Since no creature can survive without the ability to
see or sense what is going on around it, you must
make it hard for your enemies to know what is going
on around them, including what you are doing.
Disturb their focus and you weaken their strategic
powers. People's perceptions are filtered through
their emotions; they tend to interpret the world
according to what they want to see. Feed their
expectations, manufacture a reality to match their
desires, and they will fool themselves. The best
deceptions are based on ambiguity, mixing fact and
fiction so that the one cannot be disentangled from
the other. Control people's perceptions of reality and
you control them.
Robert Greene

At the end of the war, Allied Intelligence Officers
discovered in captured files of the German
Secret Service the text of two hundred and fifty
messages received from agents and other
sources before D-Day. Nearly all mentioned
July and the Calais sector. One message alone
gave the exact date and place of the invasion. It
had come from a French colonel in Algiers. The
Allies had discovered this officer was working for
the Abwehr and he was arrested and
subsequently turned round. He too was used to
mislead Berlin--used and abused. The
Germans were so often deceived by him that
they ended by treating all his information as
valueless. But they kept in contact, for it is
always useful to know what the enemy wants you
to believe. Allied Intelligence, with great
boldness and truly remarkable perversity, had
the colonel announce that the Invasion would
take place on the coast of Normandy on the 5th,
6th or 7th June. For the Germans, his message
was absolute proof that the invasion was to be
on any day except the 5th, 6th or 7th June, and
on any part of the coast except Normandy.
THE SECRETS OF D-DAY, GILLES
PERRAULT, 1965

Aprende a terminar las cosas: La estrategia de la salida

KNOW HOW TO END THINGS
THE EXIT STRATEGY

You are judged in this world by how well you bring
things to an end. A messy or incomplete conclusion
can reverberate for years to come, ruining your
reputation in the process. The art of ending things
well is knowing when to stop, never going so far that
you exhaust yourself or create bitter enemies that
embroil you in conflict in the future. It also entails
ending on the right note, with energy and flair. It is
not a question of simply winning the war but the way
you win it, the way your victory sets you up for the
next round. The height of strategic wisdom is to
avoid all conflicts and entanglements from which
there are no realistic exits.
Robert Greene

If one overshoots the goal, one cannot hit it. If a
bird will not come to its nest but flies higher and
higher, it eventually falls into the hunter's net.
He who in times of extraordinary salience of
small things does not know how to call a halt,
but restlessly seeks to press on and on, draws
upon himself misfortune at the hands of gods
and men, because he deviates from the order of
nature.
THE I CHING, CHINA, CIRCA EIGHTH
CENTURY B.C.

Negocia mientras avanzas: La estrategia de la guerra diplomática

NEGOTIATE WHILE ADVANCING
THE DIPLOMATIC-WAR STRATEGY

People will always try to take from you in negotiation
what they could not get from you in battle or direct
confrontation. They will even use appeals to fairness
and morality as a cover to advance their position.
Do not be taken in: negotiation is about
maneuvering for power or placement, and you must
always put yourself in the kind of strong position that
makes it impossible for the other side to nibble away
at you during your talks. Before and during
negotiations, you must keep advancing, creating
relentless pressure and compelling the other side to
settle on your terms. The more you take, the more
you can give back in meaningless concessions.
Create a reputation for being tough and
uncompromising, so that people are back on their
heels before they even meet you.
Robert Greene

Lord Aberdeen, the British ambassador to
Austria, proved even easier to deal with. Only
twenty-nine years old, barely able to speak
French, he was not a match for a diplomat of
Metternich's subtlety. His stiffness and selfconfidence
only played into Metternich's hands.
"Metternich is extremely attentive to Lord
Aberdeen," reported Cathcart. The results were
not long delayed. Metternich had once
described the diplomat's task as the art of
seeming a dupe, without being one, and he
practised it to the fullest on the high-minded
Aberdeen. "Do not think Metternich such a
formidable personage...," Aberdeen wrote to
Castlereagh. "Living with him at all times..., is it
possible I should not know him? If indeed he
were the most subtle of mankind, he might
certainly impose on one little used to deceive,
but this is not his character. He is, I repeat it to
you, not a very clever man. He is vain...but he is
to be trusted...." For his mixture of
condescension and gullibility, Aberdeen earned
himself Metternich's sarcastic epithet as the
"dear simpleton of diplomacy."
A WORLD RESTORED, HENRY KISSINGER, 1957

Maniobrar para lograr la debilidad del enemigo: La estrategia de maduración para la siega

MANEUVER THEM INTO WEAKNESS
THE RIPENING-FOR-THE-SICKLE STRATEGY

No matter how strong you are, fighting endless
battles with people is exhausting, costly, and
unimaginative. Wise strategists generally prefer the
art of maneuver: before the battle even begins, they
find ways to put their opponents in positions of such
weakness that victory is easy and quick. Bait
enemies into taking positions that may seem
alluring but are actually traps and blind alleys. If
their position is strong, get them to abandon it by
leading them on a wild-goose chase. Create
dilemmas: devise maneuvers that give them a
choice of ways to respond--all of them bad. Channel
chaos and disorder in their direction. Confused,
frustrated, and angry opponents are like ripe fruit on
the bough: the slightest breeze will make them fall.
Robert Greene

Warfare is like hunting. Wild animals are taken
by scouting, by nets, by lying in wait, by stalking,
by circling around, and by other such
stratagems rather than by sheer force. In waging
war we should proceed in the same way, whether
the enemy be many or few. To try simply to
overpower the enemy in the open, hand to hand
and face to face, even though you might appear
to win, is an enterprise which is very risky and
can result in serious harm. Apart from extreme
emergency, it is ridiculous to try to gain a victory
which is so costly and brings only empty glory....
BYZANTINE EMPEROR MAURIKIOS