Learning from Sun Tzu

Military Review, May-June, 2003 by Douglas M. McCready

Modern international relations specialists in the Realist tradition, such as Robert Kaplan, claim Sun Tzu as one of their own. A careful reading of The Art of War calls this claim into question. Sun Tzu writes, "The expert in using the military builds upon the way (tao) and holds fast to military regulations, and thus is able to be the arbiter of victory and defeat."(13) Tu Mu's commentary on this passage says, "The Tao is the way of humanity and justice .... Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and justice and maintain their laws and institutions."(14) Tu Mu's Sun Tzu is concerned about the character of the military leader because good character is essential to victory.

Know Your Enemy or Lose Half the Battles

Sun Tzu's military thinking is not the last word in strategy, but it is a source from which Western military and political leaders can learn much. It represents an approach to conflict against which the United States has enjoyed tactical success at the cost of strategic defeat. Seriously considering a strategic approach that influences East and Southeast Asian political and military strategy (especially that of China) will richly repay the effort. As Sun Tzu himself wrote:

   He who knows the enemy
     and himself
   Will never in a hundred
     battles be at risk;
   He who does not know the
     enemy but not knows himself
   Will sometimes win and
     sometimes lose;
   He who knows neither the
     enemy nor himself
   Will be at risk in every
     battle.(15)

Too often, American knowledge of its foes has been limited to easily measurable economic and military data, and it has overlooked the much more important cultural, historical, and psychological elements. The way to minimize casualties has been to employ massive doses of firepower rather than using a strategy that seeks to defeat the enemy before he can muster his forces on the field of battle.

In the coming decades, with the United States remaining the world's dominant military force, employing Sun Tzu's strategic lessons will be more important than ever. The United States might not incorporate all of Sun Tzu's lessons into its offensive strategy, but it will face opponents who use these lessons, or similar lessons, against the United States. Opponents recognize that direct confrontation with the United States can only result in their defeat.

MR

NOTES

(1.) I use the recent translation of Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Translated and edited by Roger Ames (New York Ballentine, 1993). The book includes material discovered after Samuel B. Griffith's well-known translation of Sun Tzu, The Art of War (New York: Oxford) was published in 1971. Many specialists consider Ames a more accurate translation.

(2.) Ames, 35

(3.) Griffith challenges the traditional earlier Chinese dating of Sun Tzu and argues that the political and military situation Sun Tzu describes did not exist before the Warring States period. Although Griffith is unsure whether Sun Tzu was an actual historical figure, he believes the text is from the 4th century B.C.