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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

Scott Boorman
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
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Summary

Often regarded as the oldest surviving work on strategy, the Sun Tzu text has influence in many quarters today. This study organizes Sun Tzu’s ideas under fourteen thematic headings. It also clarifies Sun Tzu’s limitations and blind spots. Building on Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith, USMC (Ret.)’s translation, this study analyzes Sun Tzu from three standpoints: Sun Tzu (1), Sun Tzu’s ideas in their original Warring States Chinese context; Sun Tzu (2), Sun Tzu’s ideas applied to warfare in a military sense in other times and places; Sun Tzu (3), generalizations of those ideas, including to cyber warfare and other twenty-first-century strategic competitions. Whereas Sun Tzu (1) analysis addresses ways in which the text is a product of its times, intertwined with traditional Chinese cultural milieux, Sun Tzu (2) and (3) analyses, often building on analogical thinking, map universalistic aspects of Sun Tzu’s insights into war and conflict, strategy, logistics, information, intelligence, and espionage. Those analyses also identify ways in which Sun Tzu’s thinking has relevance to gaining strategic advantage in twenty-first-century conflicts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Three Faces of Sun Tzu
Analyzing Sun Tzu's <i>Art of War</i>, A Manual on Strategy
, pp. 1 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Introduction
  • Scott Boorman, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Three Faces of Sun Tzu
  • Online publication: 07 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108686877.002
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Scott Boorman, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Three Faces of Sun Tzu
  • Online publication: 07 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108686877.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Scott Boorman, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: Three Faces of Sun Tzu
  • Online publication: 07 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108686877.002
Available formats
×