Rick Montcalm
Uncertainty is a hallmark of conflict. What Carl von Clausewitz called the fog and friction of war, uncertainty is the combined result of unpredictable circumstances that arise during war, the imperfect knowledge on which commanders must make decisions, and the impossibility of guaranteeing success, even under the best conditions. No amount of information and preparation can remove it entirely, but overcoming it is paramount. Uncertainty is persistent and omnipresent, and it is the fiery kiln in which men and women are transformed into leaders.
Early in Game of Thrones we are introduced to Daenerys Targaryen, daughter of a fallen king and pawn in her brother’s selfishly ambitious pursuit of his family’s lost throne. By the end of season 2, we find Daenerys a widowed khaleesi, born again as the Mother of Dragons and leader of a diminished Dothraki khalasar. With the passing of her husband, Khal Drogo, Daenerys’s power, position, and identity are in question. Through sheer will, an unwillingness to accept her present condition, and a spirit of defiance when dealing with those who look down on her and the ragged Dothraki, Daenerys showcases the effect a leader can have in uncertain times. In so doing, she offers an archetype of the masterful leaders who have affected the course of history on real-world battlefields.
The lore of the defiant leader is not limited to fiction. The U.S. Army’s own doctrine on leadership recognizes the role that uncertainty plays in command. Its leadership manual on what the U.S. Army calls “mission command” states that leaders “understand and use human relationships to overcome uncertainty and chaos and maintain the focus of their forces.”1 Leadership is a human endeavor, one based on principles of trust, understanding, cohesion, and accepting risk. This is true from the tactical through the strategic levels, in conflicts past and present, in the real world and in Westeros.
After a long journey through the Red Waste in season 2, Daenerys and her khalasar arrive at the gates of Qarth, a great and prosperous city run by a council of wealthy merchants and nobles known as the Thirteen. She and her people are initially denied entry into the city when Daenerys refuses to display her beloved dragons, apparently destined to perish in the Garden of Bones outside the city gates. When she and her small group of followers—diminished from the arduous journey to the city—eventually gain entry, they are immediately immersed into a world of treachery hiding beneath a veil of false wealth and affluence. This is not unlike young military leaders and commanders in far flung combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, wading through unclear circumstances to best understand their environment.
In short order, Daenerys’s dragons are kidnapped by a mystical group called the Warlocks, and several of the Dothraki are murdered. Daenerys is forced to find the dragons through a series of challenges in the House of the Undying, overcoming illusions of personal desire intended to lure her away from reality. She perseveres and destroys her captors, and her treasured dragons are restored to her. Daenerys leaves Qarth on a ship, newly enriched with the gold loot from her erstwhile captors’ homes. Qarth presented primarily a personal challenge for Daenerys but is important because it is the first instance in which she prevailed on her merits and gained the personal confidence paramount for any leader. She demonstrated the golden rule for any good military leader, whether King Leonidas at Thermopylae or Dick Winters in Band of Brothers: the mission and soldiers always come before care for self.
Next, the khaleesi and her Dothraki followers sail for Astapor in Slaver’s Bay to purchase an army, eight thousand enslaved men of the Unsullied. Throughout her first encounters with the masters in Astapor, she is clearly not taken seriously. It takes a remarkably audacious gambit before the masters recognize what a formidable opponent Daenerys represents—too late to save their own lives. Under the guise of trading one of her beloved dragons for the army, Daenerys liberates the slaves of Astapor, frees the Unsullied, and defeats the masters of the city.
Uninterested in being a slave master, Daenerys gives the Unsullied the choice to leave as free men or continue to serve voluntarily as soldiers. Inspired by this new approach, the Unsullied all remain, and Daenerys adds “Breaker of Chains” to the growing list of honorifics that speak to the regard in which her leadership is held. Her nation of followers grows, not because of subjugation, but because of genuine leadership in uncertain circumstances. Daenerys’s defiance was an incredible gamble but was based firmly on an understanding of how to exploit the masters’ perception of her weakness and naivete and how to leverage the tools at her disposal, her dragons, as well as on an understanding that having a willing army would surely prove more powerful than brokering in slaves. She arrived in Slaver’s Bay as an honorable leader but emerged as a trusted commander.
A later scene in Yunkai is very similar. Facing the three leaders of the Second Sons, the sellsword army paid to secure the city, Daenerys is once again insulted by men who underestimate her. She offers them terms, which are quickly scorned by two of the three. One of the leaders, Daario Naharis, sees gravity in her presence and words, beheads the other two, and pledges the loyalty and service of the Second Sons to her cause. Daario leads an infiltration of Yunkai, helping in the slave liberation and overthrow of the city’s masters. The khaleesi, the Mother of Dragons and Breaker of Chains, finds her band of followers again swelling by freed slaves singing mhysa (mother) at her in gratitude, inspired not by fear but by her willingness to rebuff uncertainty, challenge tradition, and lead followers rather than lord over subjects.
After liberating the enslaved populations in Astapor and Yunkai, Daenerys Targaryen and her army continue their conquest into the city of Meereen. After Daario quickly defeats the city’s champion in a duel, Daenerys launches barrels of broken slave chains over the walls. Here, the slaves are more reluctant to revolt, until the Unsullied inspire them to action. But with the success of her conquests, Daenerys also sees her population of enemies growing larger and bolder. Because of uprisings in Astapor and Yunkai as new self-proclaimed rulers and leaders vie for control, Daenerys remains in Meereen as queen to solidify her rule. She recognizes that the grasp of her control is fleeting and that the future of her queenship is uncertain. She decides to lead rather than continue her conquest, accepting that she is unlikely to be able to rule over seven kingdoms if she is unable to control three cities.
The situation in Meereen is perilous. In short order, Daenerys is forced to expel Jorah the Andal, a once-trusted friend and adviser whose past as a spy against Daenerys is exposed, and soon after, the infamous Sons of the Harpy begin a campaign of terror, killing Unsullied soldiers and civilians in an effort to reinstate slavery. Since the death of her beloved Khal Drogo and unborn son, Daenerys has never found herself more alone and isolated from the things she trusts and loves than in Meereen. Following an assassination attempt in the fighting pits by the Sons of the Harpy, Daenerys flees on Drogon’s back. After a failed peace negotiation, Daenerys’s small kingdom appears to be in peril, with recently displaced masters encircling her on all sides.
As enemy ships lay siege to Meereen, Daenerys reappears and destroys her adversaries. The Mother of Dragons has repeatedly used a combination of force and promise of freedom to grow her kingdom. In the case of Meereen, she displays the full might of her force, securing her position as commander, leader, and queen. Where influence fails, Daenerys compels her detractors with force. Even on the precipice of disaster, she remains defiant and sure of her place. Her most faithful followers never waver. They trust her promise of freedom and protection, as she repeatedly emerges at exactly the right moment, and makes the right decisions, to secure victory. This is precisely what the modern U.S. Army asks of its leaders—to place themselves at an operation’s decisive point to best influence a battle. Daenerys continuously does this, placing herself where she can best shape events.
Daenerys’s defiance and focus serve her well as her army and dragons mature, and her sights are once again set on her birthright and ultimate prize—the Iron Throne and rule over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Through the fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons of Game of Thrones, her full evolution from pawn to young leader to destined ruler becomes apparent. She has overcome doubt and poor advice to become surrounded by a fiercely loyal and capable inner council, and she finds herself risen from the bonds of slavery to command a massive alliance of ground and naval forces. Her journey remains littered with misfortune and setbacks—she loses both her navy and one of her dragons in the process. But her tenacity endures, and her ability to command matures. The Mother of Dragons and Breaker of Chains continues to lead confidently through uncertainty at every turn, and her destiny seems more certain every time she defies doubt and emerges victorious.
Consider the parallels to the siege of Bastogne, the fierce battle between German forces and the tremendously outnumbered, surrounded, and underestimated American forces at the eponymous Belgian town in December 1944. Part of the larger Battle of the Bulge, Bastogne sat at the intersection of seven roads, a critical juncture for German forces aiming to control and bring reinforcements into the port of Antwerp. The Germans considered their success a guarantee, and the Americans found themselves on the precipice of peril.
On the eve of battle, on December 22, the German commander sent a note to Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, the American deputy commander of the 101st Airborne Division, calling for a peaceful surrender. The Americans had fewer men and fewer weapons and were poorly supplied. McAuliffe’s notorious response was one word—“NUTS!” That single word signaled the division’s refusal to give ground and galvanized American resolve in that harsh winter. In the days leading up to Christmas, American victory was uncertain. By the end of January 1945, the surrounding German forces were defeated. To this day, the First Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, is known as the Bastogne Brigade.
Rewinding a bit further to World War I, the U.S. Marines fighting in France’s Belleau Wood in the summer of 1918 provide another example of leadership amid war’s uncertainty. Like their counterparts a quarter century later at Bastogne, the marines faced far superior and recently reinforced German forces. With Russia’s withdrawl from fighting on the eastern front, German strength in France was steadily increasing. American, French, and British forces were fighting to halt the westward momentum of more than five German divisions east of Paris. In early June, German forces penetrated French defensive lines, prompting the Americans to call up their reserves, which included elements of the Fourth Marine Brigade under the command of Brigadier General James Harbord.2
The retreating French forces implored the U.S. Marines to withdraw to trenches farther from the front lines. Instead, Harbord ordered his marines to fix bayonets and dig in to hastily prepared defensive positions. Over the next several days, the marines would repeatedly beat back advancing German forces, holding the line against attack after attack. When called to retreat by the French, an American officer named Captain Lloyd Williams replied, “Retreat—Hell, we just got here!”3 This defiance is emblematic of the U.S. Marine leaders during this battle and would ultimately allow American forces to take Belleau Wood and halt German advances.
In the cases of both Bastogne and Belleau Wood, the tactical victories were immeasurably important, and the tenacity of the soldiers and marines has led to mythic remembrance of these battles. Though the triumphs cannot be entirely attributed to the commanders, the role of the leaders in those battles is difficult to overstate. There are certainly similarities between Daenerys, McAuliffe, and Harbord during their tactical engagements, but the greater lesson is seen in the strategic outcomes their leadership had during times of uncertainty and potential peril. All three are pillars of creativity, audacity, and defiance—their willingness to stand firm when victory was uncertain, inspiring those who might otherwise doubt their prospects of success, is an essential component of their tactical and strategic victories.
Daenerys Targaryen is no soldier or marine. Though her story is one of nearly continuous conflict, she never occupied trenches like those of Belleau Wood or suffered a brutal winter like Bastogne’s in 1944. Nevertheless, she repeatedly found herself in positions of tactical and strategic disadvantage, and she suffered advisers who often doubted her abilities and her vision. In spite of all of this, the Mother of Dragons indignantly stared down overwhelming odds and bested daunting adversaries with a sense of purpose and self-assured vision of victory. She understood the value of earned loyalty over coerced obeisance, and when her people suffered, she shared in that suffering. Her inexperience was overcome by defiance and purpose, and her victories were secured by her daring when dealing with those who underestimated her as a warrior and leader.
1. Headquarters, Mission Command, Army Doctrine Reference Publication 6-0 (Arlington VA: Department of the Army, May 2012), 2–17.
2. Allan Millett, “Death and Life at the Three Pagoda Pass,” MHQ—The Quarterly Journal of Military History 6, no. 1 (Autumn 1993): 68–79.
3. Alexander Merrow, Gregory Starace, and Agostino von Hassell, “Belleau Wood,” Marine Corps Gazette 92, no. 11 (November 2008): 43–47.