ABSTRACT
Though primarily a military manual, Sun Tzu Art of War underscores the importance of strategic communication, political influence, intelligence and information operations, not to mention cultural acumen-in brief, the spectrum of assets, both physical and psychological, required to defend the nation's interests and values. He believed that nothing surpasses the need to understand both one's enemy and oneself, assessing realistically and without illusions the full dimensions of a volatile situation. Imprecise translations, due in part to linguistic ambiguities, and insufficient understanding of ancient Chinese philosophy generally, have prevented a deeper appreciation by Western readers of his sophisticated work. Sun Tzu took it as a given that life is perpetual strife, that winning battles is ephemeral, and that war and peace are not so much opposites as steps along the hard road of survival. Accordingly, his choice of the thinkers whose ideas on war and peace he proceeds to analyze is based on their grasp of complexity.
