6 Main Forms of Military Deception
1. The false front
Involved making the enemy believe that one was weaker than in fact was the case. The appearance of weakness often brings out people's aggressive side, making them drop strategy and prudence for an emotional and violent attack. Controlling the front you present to the world is the most critical deceptive skill. Instead you need to present a front that does the opposite-disarms suspicions. The best front here is weakness, which will make the other side feel superior to you, so that they either ignore you (and being ignored is very valuable at times) or are baited into an aggressive action at the wrong moment. Once it is too late, once they are committed, they can find out the hard way that you are not so weak after all. Making people think they are better than you are-smarter, stronger, more competent-is often wise, gives you breathing space to lay your plans, to manipulate. In a variation of this strategy, the front of virtue, honesty, and uprightness is often the perfect disguise. If you are getting ready to attack, seem unprepared for a fight or too comfortable and relaxed to be plotting war. Appear calm and friendly. Doing this will help you gain control over your appearance and sharpen your ability to keep your opponents in the dark.
2. The decoy attack
If before battle you were able to disguise your intentions and fool them out of concentrating their forces at point A, the minute they actually saw your army headed there, they would rush to its defense. The only answer was to march your army toward point B, or better, to send part of your army in that direction while holding troops in reserve for your real objective. The enemy would now have to move some or all of its army to defend point B. Do the same with points C and D and the enemy would have to disperse all over the map, the army really moves. It makes a concrete action. The enemy forces cannot afford to guess whether a deception is in the works; if they guess wrong, the consequences are disastrous. They have to move to cover point B, no matter what. So the decoy attack dispersed and ignorant of your intentions- the ultimate dream of any general. Action carry such weight and seem so real that people will naturally assume that is your real goal. Their attention is distracted from your actual objective; their defenses are dispersed and weakened.
3. Camouflage
Preventing your enemies from seeing you until it is too late is a devastating way to control their perceptions (appearances are all that count here - dress and talk like a business an and you must be a businessman). That gives your great room to move and plot with being noticed. Like a grasshopper on a leaf you cannot be picked from your context an excellent defense in times of weakness. Second, if you are preparing an attack of some sort and begin by blending into the environment, showing no sign of activity, your attack will seem to come out of nowhere, doubling its power.
4. The hypnotic pattern
According to Machiavelli, human beings naturally tend to think in terms of patterns. This mental habit offers excellent ground for deception, using a strategy that Machiavelli calls "acclimatization" deliberately creating some pattern to make your enemies believe that your next action will follow true to form. Having lulled them into complacency, you now have room to work against their expectations, break the pattern, and take them by surprise. No one, they will tell themselves, is so stupid as to repeat the exact same trick on the same person. That, of course, is just when to repeat it, following the principle of always working against your enemy's expectations.
5. Planted information
When working with double agents of this kind, it is always wise to initially feed them some true information - they will establish the credibility of the intelligence they pass along. After that will be the perfect time.
6. Shadows within shadows
By making everything blurry, there is no deception to uncover. They are simply lost in a mist of uncertainty, where truth and falsehood, good and bad, all merge into one, and it is impossible to get one's bearings straight.
Involved making the enemy believe that one was weaker than in fact was the case. The appearance of weakness often brings out people's aggressive side, making them drop strategy and prudence for an emotional and violent attack. Controlling the front you present to the world is the most critical deceptive skill. Instead you need to present a front that does the opposite-disarms suspicions. The best front here is weakness, which will make the other side feel superior to you, so that they either ignore you (and being ignored is very valuable at times) or are baited into an aggressive action at the wrong moment. Once it is too late, once they are committed, they can find out the hard way that you are not so weak after all. Making people think they are better than you are-smarter, stronger, more competent-is often wise, gives you breathing space to lay your plans, to manipulate. In a variation of this strategy, the front of virtue, honesty, and uprightness is often the perfect disguise. If you are getting ready to attack, seem unprepared for a fight or too comfortable and relaxed to be plotting war. Appear calm and friendly. Doing this will help you gain control over your appearance and sharpen your ability to keep your opponents in the dark.
2. The decoy attack
If before battle you were able to disguise your intentions and fool them out of concentrating their forces at point A, the minute they actually saw your army headed there, they would rush to its defense. The only answer was to march your army toward point B, or better, to send part of your army in that direction while holding troops in reserve for your real objective. The enemy would now have to move some or all of its army to defend point B. Do the same with points C and D and the enemy would have to disperse all over the map, the army really moves. It makes a concrete action. The enemy forces cannot afford to guess whether a deception is in the works; if they guess wrong, the consequences are disastrous. They have to move to cover point B, no matter what. So the decoy attack dispersed and ignorant of your intentions- the ultimate dream of any general. Action carry such weight and seem so real that people will naturally assume that is your real goal. Their attention is distracted from your actual objective; their defenses are dispersed and weakened.
3. Camouflage
Preventing your enemies from seeing you until it is too late is a devastating way to control their perceptions (appearances are all that count here - dress and talk like a business an and you must be a businessman). That gives your great room to move and plot with being noticed. Like a grasshopper on a leaf you cannot be picked from your context an excellent defense in times of weakness. Second, if you are preparing an attack of some sort and begin by blending into the environment, showing no sign of activity, your attack will seem to come out of nowhere, doubling its power.
4. The hypnotic pattern
According to Machiavelli, human beings naturally tend to think in terms of patterns. This mental habit offers excellent ground for deception, using a strategy that Machiavelli calls "acclimatization" deliberately creating some pattern to make your enemies believe that your next action will follow true to form. Having lulled them into complacency, you now have room to work against their expectations, break the pattern, and take them by surprise. No one, they will tell themselves, is so stupid as to repeat the exact same trick on the same person. That, of course, is just when to repeat it, following the principle of always working against your enemy's expectations.
5. Planted information
When working with double agents of this kind, it is always wise to initially feed them some true information - they will establish the credibility of the intelligence they pass along. After that will be the perfect time.
6. Shadows within shadows
By making everything blurry, there is no deception to uncover. They are simply lost in a mist of uncertainty, where truth and falsehood, good and bad, all merge into one, and it is impossible to get one's bearings straight.
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