The Strategic Review Archives
We’ve got some terrific readers of The Strategic Review — a common request has been for a comprehensive archive of past issues to introduce friends and colleagues to TSR. You wanted it — you got it. Here’s how to find all past issues. Feel free to link friends and colleagues to this page, which will be updated periodically.
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Issues Prior to Background Ops Are Available At Amazon
ARC 1: PROGRESSION
Progression contains the first three TSR series: Upstream Effects, Toughness, and Uncommon Virtues.
Upstream Effects asks the question, “How much control do you have over this current moment?” The answer — maybe less than is commonly believed. Our lives are ruled by upstream effects, decisions we made in the past that flow down to the current moment. Upstream Effects explores how to build greater control and thriving in your life now so that it flows into the future of your life.
Toughness was a deep exploration of… well, toughness. Our working definition of mental toughness became, “doing what one ought to do, regardless if you feel like doing it or not.” We explored what goes into mental and physical toughness, keeping morale high, and channeling that toughness through mission orientation to produce great works in the world.
Uncommon Virtues explored concepts that were commonly believed and normal in the past, but which have become rare in the modern world. It opens with making the case that “Mere Competence” is the foundation of virtue… and surprisingly rare, then explores a few thousand years of history and topics like Counterintuion, Higher-Order Thinking, and Aesthetic Sense. It ends with an investigation of the truly Great and Sublime.
ARC 2: MACHINA
Machina contains the series Vantages, Temporal Control, and Dubious Battle.
Vantages traced the path of the “Three Great Unifiers” of Japan through the Sengoku Civil Wars, with their mix of philosophy, samurai ethics, innovation and tradition, gunpowder and cavalry charges and assassination, elite strategy and diplomacy, and a whole host of lessons from one of the most intense and inspiring eras of history. Hands-down most popular TSR series to date.
Temporal Control was certainly an ambitious project — an attempt to chart out all the tools and techniques needed to navigate all of time and space in order to to make things happen. While not quite reaching that lofty goal, Temporal Control traces the foundation of institutions and the nature of reality, how to measure and chart things. Drawing from examples ranging from the start of World War I, the origination of modern coined money in Lydia under King Croesus, the formulation of modern accounting by Leonardo da Vinci’s roommate (really), the first modern empire under Cyrus the Great, and the formation of the Turkish Republic by Mustafa Kemal in the aftermath of the Fall of the Ottoman Empire… Temporal Control offered a lot of tools for the creation of new things and the navigation of modern life.
Dubious Battle was a special TSR series — rather than prescriptive guidance, it looked at the long-running and never-conflicting throughout history, and the tradeoffs between the different positions. It opened with the most popular TSR issue of all time, “Faith vs Works,” and explored concepts like Rank, Aristocracy, Duty, and Morality. An intense and thought-provoking series.
ARC 3: PRAGMA
Pragma covered the most controversial ground in TSR history with the series Danger Flags, Limit Breaks, and Lingua Franca.
Danger Flags covered a concept that is simple but critically important: before a person does something bad, there’s often predictable signs that they were going to do it. A darker and more controversial series, it explores Carthage’s defeat in the Punic Wars, the assassination of Julius Caesar, and multiple in-depth explorations of various Cold War episodes, including how Stalin’s security chiefs should have been able to anticipate their inevitable fates. The end goal of Danger Flags is to be able to spot people who are likely to do bad things, and to mitigate against those — and likewise, to spot dangerous elements in one’s own character and work to improve those, to be more trustworthy and reliable.
Limit Breaks takes a step back from the dark side of humanity with study and analysis of what the limits are that hold us back from making a terrific life — and asking, how do we break through those limits? Limit Breaks covers the elements of time on large and short scales, action, automation, project success rates, bottlenecks and constraints, perception, combinations, success and failure, and getting right to the heart of an issue.
Lingua Franca is a deep exploration of the nature of thought and communication. What is language, really? What are words? Are we using them well? Are we using them poorly? An abstract subject matter brought alive by vivid historical examples, Lingua Franca’s purpose is to give you better control over your very thoughts — and how you communicate with yourself and others.
ARC 4: FLEETNESS
The fourth arc of TSR was Celerity — where speed comes from and how to move faster — along with Background Ops and Unity, both of which have publicly available archives here at Medium.com.
Celerity isn’t currently online at Amazon or on Medium, but will be in 2–3 months when Fleetness is compiled and comes out. Background Ops and Unity are below with links to their issues; reader-favorite issues are bolded and italicized.
Background Operations
1. Strict Limit
2. Keystone
3. Entrainment
4. Value-Producing Work
5. The Nature of Operations
6. Strength and Weakness
7. Universal Principles
8. Operational Consistency
9. Hard Rules
10. Creative Processes
11. Explore/Exploit Tradeoffs
Unity
1. Structural Pressures
2. Unit Cohesion
3. Chaotic Evil
4. Selection Procedures
5. Moral Authority
6. Instincts
7. Communication
8. Norms and Defaults
9. Mission Orientation
10. Friendship and Loyalty
Those are the archives —they’ll be updated as new issues come out, new compilations come out, and old issues are put online.
Please feel very free to link friends or colleagues here, though you might pick out an issue that’s particularly relevant to them and link them directly to it to get them started — there’s a lot here!
Oh, and don’t forget to tell them to get their free subscription to TSR at:
http://www.thestrategicreview.net/
Thanks for all your support and readership — I think I might have the very best readers in the world, and I’m always very grateful and humbled by the quality and sharpness of the people who read TSR.
Best,
Sebastian Marshall
Editor, TheStrategicReview.net
