Toward a strategy

In the fifth century BC the ancient Chinese strategist of war Sun Tsu noted that “What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.”1 Without a deep knowledge of one’s adversary, he argued, one cannot expect to wage an effective campaign. Every decision one makes with regard to that opponent, including their goals, their strengths and their vulnerabilities, would stem from a faulty premise. A war could therefore be lost before a single battle was fought if one failed to attack the enemy’s strategy.