ABSTRACT
Having reviewed ancient Chinese writings about the nature of war and the practicalities of waging it, one may return to the question of where these writings might inform contemporary debates. Chapter 3 began its survey of nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-fi rst century strategic debates by considering the use of war as a political instrument, the mobilization of society for military purposes, and the implications of these issues for civil life. As Chapter 4 documents, the ancient Chinese offered detailed analyses of strikingly similar points from a range of pre-modern, modernistic and postmodernistic perspectives. Sun Tzu’s quasi-Taoist approach stands out for its at least partially successful attempt to accommodate both the truths and the undeniable pitfalls of simple modernism, and later generations of Chinese strategists have promoted it on those grounds.
