#ART OF WAR MANUALS#
#ART OF WAR SERIES#

Success requires playing on an infinite variety of combinations between force and surprise, feint and attack.Д«ased on this understanding of the dynamics of warfare, The Art of WarВ divides its teaching into four practical areas: terrain and conditions вЂ“ including weather and what modern tacticians call вЂthe battle spaceвЂ™ organisationВ вЂ“ the efficiency, preparation and logistics of the army command вЂ“ the role of the commander, his relationship to his troops, his political masters and the enemy and, finally, information and psychological operations вЂ“ including the use of espionage. Battles and wars are won by exploiting the opportunity of victory by direct force, declares Sun-tzu, or by guile, deception and surprise. Often translated as вЂfortuneвЂ™ or вЂfateвЂ™, the word is closer to вЂchanceвЂ™ in the sense of opportunity. Sun-tzu and Machiavelli strip the game of war, power and politics to its bare essentials and share an important concept: what Machiavelli calls fortuna.

#ART OF WAR SERIES#

A closer comparison might be with The Prince by NiccolГІ Machiavelli, whose series of reflections on power and destiny are pithily expressed, such as in the famous dictum for a prince that it is вЂbetter to be feared than lovedвЂ™. If he is in disorder, attack him and take him.вЂ™Д«ut what took Clausewitz a dozen volumes to expound, Sun-tzu manages in 13 economical chapters. If the enemy seeks some advantage, entice him with it. Clausewitz introduces the concepts of вЂfrictionвЂ™ and вЂthe fog of warвЂ™: Sun-tzu explains that вЂwarfare is the art of deceit. While Clausewitz declares war to be the continuation of politics and diplomacy by other means, Sun-tzu states that вЂto win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest excellence the highest excellence is to subdue the enemyвЂ™s army without fighting at allвЂ™. In influencing Western thinking on war and peace, intelligence and diplomacy, The Art of War has only one serious competitor, On War by the Prussian academic Carl von Clausewitz.

#ART OF WAR MANUALS#

Manuals of military strategy existed at the time but Sun-tzu вЂ“ just before the era of Alexander the Great and Hannibal in the West вЂ“ distilled a set of military precepts and principles which are still used today. From the evidence of the text, Sun-tzu is likely to have been an active field commander, serving the Wu monarch and operating as an itinerant military adviser. We know with more certainty that the 13 core chapters of instruction in The Art of War come from the China of вЂthe warring statesвЂ™ in the 4th century. Some suggest that Sun-tzu may have been a woman, since there were female generals in China at that time, though there is little hard evidence that Sun-tzu was one of them. He may have been an individual, or a collective like the supposed several Homers of the Iliad and Odyssey. He is like Isaiah Berlin on philosophy вЂ“ he makes it seem so simple, it canвЂ™t possibly be clever.вЂ™ With his insight into the psychology of command, the power of appearances, the trade-off between oneвЂ™s own and oneвЂ™s enemyвЂ™s weaknesses and strengths, and the critical role played by time in conflict and combat, he seems very much our contemporary.Д«ut the identity of Sun-tzu is now a mystery. As a British general explained in an email from Basra this summer, Sun-tzuвЂ™s вЂblinding glimpses of the obvious are more than is often understood. His simple means of expressing himself, the metaphors from nature and the plain turns of phrase, hide the originality of his perception. Robert Fox examines the subtle understanding of psychology and leadership that makes Sun-tzuвЂ™s ancient instructions on The Art of War uncannily relevant to the quandaries of modern conflict and diplomacy.Дeception lies at the heart of Sun-tzuвЂ™s analysis in The Art of War, and this is perhaps what makes his teaching so beguiling for modern readers.

Art of war