Summary of Sean McFate's The New Rules of War

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The War of Eight Saints took place in Italy from 1375 to 1378, and it was similar to the present-day Middle East in many ways. The religion in question was not Islam, but Christianity, and the fighters were not standard military uniforms, but mercenaries from every corner of Europe. #2 The War of Eight Saints is an example of how people today confuse war and warfare.
It is a brutal, bloody, and unfair conflict between two groups, whether it was between the Romans and the Sabines in 400 BCE or between the Sunnis and the Shias today. #3 There is no such thing as conventional versus unconventional warfare. There is just war. The West's model for armed conflict is conventional war, and this is why the West continues to lose against weaker enemies who do not fight according to our preferences. #4 The Westphalian Order is the state-centric international system of today, which was created when someone was thrown out of a window in Prague in 1618.
It has many features, but the most important is this: only states are sovereign, and everyone else is subordinate.