Sean McFate

"Stunning. Sean McFate is a new Sun Tzu." -Admiral James Stavridis (retired), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO Some of the principles of warfare are ancient, others are new, but all described in The New Rules of War will permanently shape war now and in the future. By following them Sean McFate 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. The New Rules of War is an urgent, fascinating exploration of war—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.

Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder

The New Rules of War

It was 2004, and Sean McFate had a mission in Burundi: to keep the president alive and prevent the country from spiraling into genocide without anyone knowing that the United States was involved. The United States was, of course, involved, but only through McFate's employer, the militarycontractor DynCorp International. Throughout Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, similar scenarios are playing out daily. The United States can no longer go to war or carry out covert operations without contractors. In 2010, the Pentagon's budget for private contractors was seven times theentire U.K. defense budget. How did this state of affairs come to be? How does the shadowy world of military contracting actually operate? And what do trends suggest about the future of war and international relations? We simply don't know much about the structure of the industry, how private military companies operate, andwhere this industry is heading. Typically led by ex-military men, such firms are by their very nature secretive. Even the US government - the entity that actually pays them - knows relatively little.In Private Armies, former industry insider Sean McFate lays bare the opaque world of private military contractors, explaining the economic structure of the industry and showing in detail how firms operate on the ground. As a former paratrooper and private military contractor, McFate provides anunparalleled perspective into the nuts and bolts of the industry, as well as a sobering prognosis for the future of war. While at present the U.S. government and U.S. firms dominate the market, private military companies are emerging from other countries, and warlords and militias have restyledthemselves as private security companies in places like Afghanistan and Somalia. To understand how the proliferation of private forces may influence international relations, McFate looks back to the European Middle Ages, when mercenaries were common and contract warfare the norm. He concludes thatinternational relations in the twenty-first century may have more in common with the twelfth century than the twentieth. This "back to the future" situation, which he calls neomedievalism, is not necessarily a negative condition, but it will produce a global system that contains rather than solvesproblems. A decidedly non-polemical account (a rarity in this field), Private Armies is the first work that combines a broad-ranging theory of the phenomenon with an insider's understanding of what the world of the private military industry is actually like.

Private Armies and what They Mean for World Order

The Modern Mercenary

Bret Witter

An army veteran with deep expertise in military and international affairs makes his fiction debut with this electrifying international thriller—the first volume in a blistering hot series in the tradition of Brad Thor, Tom Clancy, and Daniel Silva. In Shadow War, an elite American mercenary on a secret mission to save a businessman’s family in Eastern Europe must navigate perilous setbacks and deadly enemies that threaten to tip the balance of power between Russia and the United States. Tom Locke is an elite warrior working for Apollo Outcomes, one of the world’s most successful private contracting firms. Pulled out of a mission in Libya, he is tapped for an unusual and risky assignment: a top secret black op in Ukraine. He is given one week to rescue an oligarch’s family and pull off a spectacular assault that could have long-lasting repercussions for this imperiled Eastern European nation and the world. What Locke doesn’t know is that the operation comes with a dangerous complication: Brad Winters. Locke’s ambitious and enigmatic boss is engaged in a secretive, high-stakes geopolitical chess game with several influential powerbrokers in capitals around the world. One misstep could cost him—and Locke—everything. While Locke has methodically planned the mission and hand-picked a team of trusted operatives to pull it off—and save his ass if things go south—he doesn’t count on running into a former love, war correspondent Alie MacFarlane, who impulsively makes a move that risks both their lives. Locke is an intelligent, iconoclastic soldier who specializes in pulling off the impossible. But all his brilliant preparation can’t prevent the kind of backstabbing and deception that could lead to catastrophe . . . and tip the balance of power toward Putin’s Russia.

A Tom Locke Novel

Shadow War

"An American James Bond meets the twists and turns of Homeland."--Adm James Stavridis, USN (Ret), Supreme Allied Commander at NATO In this pulse-pounding third action thriller for fans of Brad Thor and David Baldacci, hero Tom Locke, introduced in Shadow War and Deep Black, must stop traitors and ruthless mercenaries working together to overthrow the president. En route to the National Prayer Breakfast, the U.S. vice president's motorcade is hit in a vicious, expertly planned attack that throws Washington, D.C. into chaos. Everyone assumes it's ISIS--everyone but young FBI agent Jennifer Lin. She is certain that Russia is behind the strike. Half a world away, military contractor Tom Locke has his own doubts about what happened--and who did it. He suspects his former employer, Apollo Outcomes, might be involved. But why would the global security firm orchestrate an attack on US soil? Returning to D.C., Locke discovers that a civil war has fractured Apollo. A division has splintered off, a rogue unit led by an ambitious, unprincipled former colleague who may have planned the attack himself. But Apollo couldn't have pulled this off without help from inside the government. The official's itinerary and route were confidential--which means there must be a traitor high up in either the White House or the NSA who is leaking information to Apollo. But why? And who could be pulling the strings? Islamic fundamentalist terrorists? Or is this a new ploy by Putin to discredit the U.S. government and divide it from its democratic allies? Only Locke can get to the bottom of the conspiracy that traverses the globe and blow it apart with one strategic strike before it's too late.

High Treason

Tom Locke goes inside ISIS territory in this military action thriller. Tom Locke is on the run from Apollo Outcomes, a private military corporation run by the treacherous Brad Winters. While working undercover on the frontline of ISIS-infected Iraq, he is approached by a middleman looking to find a missing Saudi Prince. What Locke doesn't know is that the young Prince may be carrying a secret agreement made with the Pakistanis in the 1960s, and that his father may be trying to topple the Saudi government. Who is the mysterious Saudi who hired Locke's team? Is the prince's disappearance personal or political? And all the while a duplicitous adversary much closer to home waits for his chance to strike... A compulsive and explosive thriller, Deep Black is perfect for fans of Rob Sinclair, Daniel Silva and Tom Clancy. Praise for Sean McFate ‘I was blown away... simply one of the most entertaining and intriguing books I've read in quite some time’ Mark Greaney, #1 New York Times bestselling author ‘Persuasive, unsettling and nonpolemical’ Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review

Deep Black

"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 Some of the principles of warfare are ancient, others are new, but all described in The New Rules of War will permanently shape war now and in the future. By following them Sean McFate 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. The New Rules of War is an urgent, fascinating exploration of war—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.

Shadow war

Unti Tom Locke Novel #3

THE TIMES 100 BEST BOOKS FOR SUMMER AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'AN IMPORTANT BOOK' Sir Richard Dearlove, Former Director of MI6 'The Freakonomics of modern warfare' Conn Iggulden Everything you think you know about war is wrong. The rules have changed, and we are dangerously unprepared. In Goliath, former paratrooper and Professor of Strategy Sean McFate teaches us the ten new rules of war for today. __________ War is timeless. Some things change - weapons, tactics, leadership - but our desire to go into battle does not. We are living in an age of conflict: global terrorism, Russia's resurgence and China's rise, international criminal empires, climate change and dwindling natural resources. But while the West has been playing the same old war games, the enemy has changed the rules. Sean McFate has been on the front lines of conflict. He has seen first-hand the horrors of battle, and as a strategist, he understands the complexity of the current military situation. In this new age of war: - Technology will not save us - Victory will belong to the cunning, not the strong - Plausible deniability is more potent than firepower - New types of world powers will rule Learn how to triumph in the coming age of conflict in ten new rules. Adapt and we can prevail. Fail, and size and strength won't protect us. This is The Art of War for the 21st century. __________ 'Some of what he says makes more sense than much of what comes out of the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence' Max Hastings, Sunday Times 'Thought-provoking' Johnathon Evans, Former Head of MI5 'Fascinating and disturbing' Economist

Why the West Isn’t Winning. And What We Must Do About It.

Goliath

National Defense University Press

Mercenaries are more powerful than experts realize, a grave oversight. Those who assume they are cheap imitations of national armed forces invite disaster because for-profit warriors are a wholly different genus and species of fighter. Private military companies such as the Wagner Group are more like heavily armed multinational corporations than the Marine Corps. Their employees are recruited from different countries, and profitability is everything. Patriotism is unimportant, and sometimes a liability. Unsurprisingly, mercenaries do not fight conventionally, and traditional war strategies used against them may backfire.

Understanding Private Armies Today

Mercenaries and War

His country stands on the brink of chaos – failure is not an option. The U.S. vice president’s motorcade is hit in a vicious, expertly planned attack that throws Washington, D.C. into chaos. Everyone assumes it’s ISIS – everyone but young FBI agent Jennifer Lin. She is certain that Russia is behind the strike. Half a world away, military contractor Tom Locke has his own doubts about what happened. He suspects his former employer, Apollo Outcomes, might be involved. But why would the global security firm orchestrate an attack on US soil? Locke discovers that a civil war has fractured Apollo. A rogue division has splintered off, led by an unprincipled former colleague who may have planned the attack himself. But Apollo couldn’t have pulled this off without help from inside the government, which means there must be a traitor high up in either the White House or the NSA. But why? And who could be pulling the strings? Only Locke can get to the bottom of the conspiracy that traverses the globe, and blow it apart with one strategic strike before it’s too late. In this pulse-pounding third action thriller for fans of Brad Thor and David Baldacci, hero Tom Locke, introduced in Shadow War and Deep Black, must stop traitors and ruthless mercenaries working together to overthrow the president. Praise for High Treason ‘McFate just might be the next Tom Clancy, only I think he’s even better... The action is non-stop and shuttles back and forth between scary-believable and rollicking good fun. I read High Treason during a six-hour plane ride and the trip went by like the snap of my fingers’ – James Patterson ‘High Treason has brutal assassinations, shocking betrayals, even heated gun battles in the shadow of the White House. It had me breathless – from the sheer audacity of its storytelling to its breakneck pacing. It’s not to be missed!’ – James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Odyssey

Sean McFate

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