“It is by turning the enemy, by attacking his flank, that battles are won.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte
One of Napoleon’s favorite strategies was what he called the
manoeuvre sur les derrières
. Its success was based on two truths: First, generals like to place their armies in a strong frontal position. Napoleon would often play on this tendency to face forward in battle by seeming to engage the enemy frontally; in the fog of battle, it was hard to tell that really only half of his army was deployed here, and meanwhile he would sneak the other half to the side or rear. Second, an army sensing attack from the flank is alarmed and vulnerable and must turn to face the threat. This moment of turning contains great weakness and confusion. Learn from the great master himself: Attacking from the front is rarely wise. Go for the flank, the vulnerable side. This principle is applicable to conflicts or encounters of any scale. Individuals often show their flank, signal their vulnerability, by its opposite, the front they show most visibly to the world. This front can be an aggressive personality, a way of dealing with people by pushing them around. It can be their most cherished beliefs and ideas; it can be the way they make themselves liked. The more you get people to expose this front, to show more of themselves and the directions they tend to move in, the more their unprotected flanks will come into focus—unconscious desires, gaping insecurities, precarious alliances, uncontrollable compulsions. Once you move on their flanks, your targets will turn to face you and lose their equilibrium. All enemies are vulnerable from their sides. There is no defense against a well-designed flanking maneuver.
Daily Law: When you attack people head-on, you stiffen their resistance and make your task that much harder. Instead: distract your opponents’ attention to the front, then attack them from the side, where they least expect it.
The 33 Strategies of War
, Strategy 18: Expose and Attack Your Opponent’s Soft Flank—The Turning Strategy