Book Review
From the man “who got bin Laden” comes his 47th book, Conquering Crisis, another best seller, published April 2025. This one deviates, from the familiar format that many of his books have followed. Using 5 points of analyses, “Assess,” “Report,” “Contain,” “Shape,” and “Manage,” to arrive at “Resolve,” the book draws a point-by-point map for avoiding and conquering crises.
Components of a Crisis
McRaven employs the same organization within each of his ten chapters to introduce and analyze the components of a crisis.
First, as in Chapter 5, his title, “Move All Your Actions Forward,” introduces the premise of the chapter. Then, on that same page, in one or two sentences, he lays out how he will prove his idea:
“In a crisis, your choice of actions may be constrained by a lack of information. Therefore, always have multiple options available and at the ready.”
On the next page by itself is a quotation from a renowned person. In the instance of chapter 5 – J. P. Morgan, noted American financier: “The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.”
Then the hard part for the author begins. In each chapter, he draws from both history and personal vignettes to prove to the reader what his thesis has promised.
In chapter 5, the author will prove that a leader, in knowing that a lack of information may lead to failure, must have options, just in case.
The Tirpitz Crisis
He first begins in the “War Rooms” of London, February 1942, summarizing a situation that Winston Churchill faced with the Tirpitz, a Bismarck-class German battleship sitting in a Norway harbor.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, cousin to King George VI, who assumed the helm of Churchill’s Combined Operations Command, presented a set of “ingenious plans” to cripple the ship and its flotilla of guardian ships. Not only that, but those plans also included destroying the dry docks for ships’ repairs in the Saint-Nazaire harbors, using HMS Campbeltown. Multiple options!
The next story that McRaven chooses to prove his thesis is labeled “England, May 1991.” McRaven traveled to the Cotswolds to interview two men, who had served as lieutenants in the strike at the Tirpitz, 48 years earlier. They confirmed that original plans had to be coupled with other options in order for Churchill to be satisfied and eventually order Operation Chariot to be launched.
George Bush and the Invasion of Kuwait
The third story — Washington, DC, August 1, 1990, 2020 hours — involves the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait which, for President Geroge H. W. Bush, had all the elements of an imminent crisis. Bush, “the most experienced foreign policy president in modern history,” knew to have multiple options on hand when Margaret Thatcher and he formed a coalition to invade Iraq.
Each of this book’s ten chapters addresses a different possible component of a crisis. The chapter supports a quotation ranging from Napoleon Bonaparte to General Colin Powell and even Serena Williams.
At the end of each chapter McRaven ends with a page entitled “In A Crisis,” devoted to three tenets, written as commands, that all three of his vignettes have addressed. Conquering Crisis certainly offers history buffs an intimate look at the past from a naval professional and also offers expert advice for any leader or potential leader!
Admiral McRaven brings to the literary world a career replete with service. A 1979 graduate of the University of Texas, he served thirty-seven years as a Navy SEAL, commanding at every level and served as Commander of all US Special Operations Forces as a Four-Star Admiral. His final official area of full-time service was as the Chancellor of the University of Texas System from 2015 to 2018.
Suggestions for a graduation gift: Try Admiral McRaven’s Make Your Bed (2017), The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived (2021), and/or The Wisdom of the Bullfrog (2023).
