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Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare: Updated Edition
Long acknowledged as a classic text on strategy, Sun Tzu's The Art of War has been admired by leaders as diverse as Mao Zedong and General Norman Schwartzkopf. However, having been written two thousand years ago, the book can be somewhat daunting to the modern reader.
Mark McNeilly, author of Sun Tzu and the Art of Business (OUP, 2011), which made Sun Tzu accessible to the business executive, has extracted the six concepts most applicable to modern warfare, making them easy to understand and apply to military situations. Drawing on a wealth of fascinating historical examples, McNeilly shows how these six principles might be used in wars of the future---both conventional wars and terrorist conflicts---and how they can provide insight into current affairs, such as the war on terrorism and China's increasingly important strategic and military role in the world.
This updated edition reflects on all that has happened in the past ten years, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the challenge of Iran, the "Arab Spring," and the continued rise of China. Each chapter includes brand new examples to explain important concepts in The Art of War .
Including the full text of The Art of War in the popular translation by Samuel Griffith, with cross-references to quotations used in the book, Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare unlocks these elusive secrets for anyone interested in strategy and warfare, whether they are professional soldiers, military history buffs, or business executives.
Mark McNeilly, author of Sun Tzu and the Art of Business (OUP, 2011), which made Sun Tzu accessible to the business executive, has extracted the six concepts most applicable to modern warfare, making them easy to understand and apply to military situations. Drawing on a wealth of fascinating historical examples, McNeilly shows how these six principles might be used in wars of the future---both conventional wars and terrorist conflicts---and how they can provide insight into current affairs, such as the war on terrorism and China's increasingly important strategic and military role in the world.
This updated edition reflects on all that has happened in the past ten years, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the challenge of Iran, the "Arab Spring," and the continued rise of China. Each chapter includes brand new examples to explain important concepts in The Art of War .
Including the full text of The Art of War in the popular translation by Samuel Griffith, with cross-references to quotations used in the book, Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare unlocks these elusive secrets for anyone interested in strategy and warfare, whether they are professional soldiers, military history buffs, or business executives.
328 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
March 20, 2021
I read Sun Tzu many years ago but didn't get a lot out of it. His original Art of War comprises page after page of pithy statements, individually all of which are very sound and sensible, but which in the absence of much more detailed analysis don't in themselves particularly educate or inform.
This book was therefore a perfect reader because it made Sun Tzu much more accessible. There were two ways in which it achieved this.
First, it rearranged the order of the original sayings into a more coherent structure, thus presenting Sun Tzu in a less random and more organised way. Essentially the author found six generic themes within Sun Tzu and reorganised the original source to present each of the six themes individually.
Second, it illustrated the themes and sayings with specific historical examples, covering everything from Thermopylae to the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This reinforced the wisdom of the original, brought it to life and provided the analysis which added the 'educate and inform' to the original.
This book was exactly what I was looking for in terms of both its subject matter and the way it delivered it. Very interesting and highly enjoyable. For anyone who's never read Sun Tzu but is interested in his work, I would recommend reading this book rather than the original. And for the purists among you, a full version of the original appears at the end anyway.
This book was therefore a perfect reader because it made Sun Tzu much more accessible. There were two ways in which it achieved this.
First, it rearranged the order of the original sayings into a more coherent structure, thus presenting Sun Tzu in a less random and more organised way. Essentially the author found six generic themes within Sun Tzu and reorganised the original source to present each of the six themes individually.
Second, it illustrated the themes and sayings with specific historical examples, covering everything from Thermopylae to the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This reinforced the wisdom of the original, brought it to life and provided the analysis which added the 'educate and inform' to the original.
This book was exactly what I was looking for in terms of both its subject matter and the way it delivered it. Very interesting and highly enjoyable. For anyone who's never read Sun Tzu but is interested in his work, I would recommend reading this book rather than the original. And for the purists among you, a full version of the original appears at the end anyway.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review