The Art of War and its Relevance to Modem Strategic Management and Administration: A Comparative Appraisal of Sun Tzu with Kautilya and Clausewitz
| Author | Y. Pardhasaradhi |
| Published date | 01 October 2015 |
| Date | 01 October 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0019556120150404 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
ART
OF
WAR AND ITS RELEVANCE
TO
MODERN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND
ADMINISTRATION: A COMPARATIVE APPRAISAL
OF SUN TZU
WITH
KAUTILYAAND CLAUSEWITZ
Y.
PARDHASARADHI
Sun
Tzu
s concepts are ageless.
If
you look hard enough, things
such as strategic intelligence, planning, attention to detail,
cunning, deception,
and
theories
of
leadership
in
which the
leader earns authority with the followers, have universal value
and are appropriate to any human arena and any period.
If
part
of
Sun
Tzu
s modern appeal derives from the constant search
for
any nuggets
of
intelligence that may give an organisation
an edge over the competition, another
part
lies
in
the
fact
that The Art
of
War offers an opportunity
to
gain insights
into the Oriental mind that
do
not come from someone with a
modern axe to grind
or
reputation to make. This article gives a
comparative appraisal
of
Sun
Tzu
s work with that
of
Kautilya,
the great Indian philosopher and Carl
Von
Clausewitz, the great
Prussian military strategist.
"Know your competitors, know
yourself
and success will never be at
risk. Know the ground, know the natural conditions,
and
success can be
total. "
-Sun
Tzu
INTRODUCTION
IT IS generally accepted that in strategy, as in political history or international
politics, many fundamental principles and insights into human behaviour are
universally applicable. In theory
of
international relations, for example, the
assumption that all nations share the need to protect their "vital interests" and
therefore
try
to maximise their power with regard to potential adversaries
is the type
of
broadly applicable insight. All decision makers in foreign
policy (and strategy) as well as top managements in business and trade face
common problems in assessing their relative power; all must learn how to
function within a complicated bureaucratic and organisational milieu and
how to manipulate public opinion in order to implement their policies.
642 I INDIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
VOL.
LX!,
NO.
4,
OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2015
With regard to warfare, there exist three distinct treatises written
centuries apart and have acquired a cult status. Though the gap between
Sun Tzu's The
Art
of
War
(5
1
h century BCE), Kautilya's Arthashqstra
(4th
century BCE) and Carl von Clausewitz's On
War
(1832 AD) is greater in
terms
of
time, geographic conditions, and culture, but the differences in
emphasis and, at times, substance between these three strategists seem to
overlap. In 500 BCE Sun Tzu lived and wrote The
Art
of
War.
The first
European translation
of
The
Art
of
War
was published in 1782 in French
while the standard English translation was published in 1910. 1 Though
written 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu, The
Art
of
War
is still highly relevant to
public management in the
21
•1 Century. 2
Less than hundred pages in English translation, The
Art
of
War
was
written "with the aphoristic distinctness
of
Chinese literature," in the form
of
brief notes that are "models
of
austere brevity," and, "the concentrated
essence
of
wisdom on the conduct
of
war". The
Art
of
War
does not offer
the reader a systematic explanation or step-by-step reconstruction
of
the
logical process through which concepts are developed. From this point
of
view, The
Art
of
War
reads more like a manual written as a succinct guide
for the "prince" or the high level military commander. Sun Tzu, for the
most part, presents the reader with his conclusions. He recognises that
the complexity and unpredictability
of
war are created by the process
of
interaction. "That which depends on me, I can do: that which depends on
the enemy cannot be certain. Therefore it
is
said that one may know how
to win, but cannot necessarily do so".3
Strategy has been the underlying theme in The
Art
of
War
throughout.
Without strategy there
is
nothing that an army -whatever its size -can
achieve despite resources and men. The use
of
strategy has literally changed
the map
of
the world and caused the rise and fall
of
many a nation and its
people. The unique combination
of
wisdom, science and craft has made
strategy creation and its application a universally sought after skill. A look
back at where it all began and how
it
developed from its military origins
provides the foundation for a more thorough grasp
of
what often seems
ungraspable. Strategy sprung from the need for people to defeat their
enemies.4 The
Art
of
War
is
the first treatise to emphasise the need
of
strategy
to achieve a political object which includes political bargaining, diplomacy,
deception, spying, and ultimately
war.
Some
of
the more important military
strategy authors include Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), author
of
The
Prince, Adam Heinrich von Buelow (
17
52-1807), a German writer who was
the first to describe strategy in terms
of
bases and lines
of
communication,
and more recently B.H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970), author
of
Strategy.
In the contemporary world, strategy includes geo-political advantage
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