Sun Tzu's Concepts; 4 main themes

From here: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/ksil477.pdf

Sun Tzu’s core concepts are most easily described by organizing them into four main
themes: Fundamentals; Command and Control; Important Strategies and Methods of Warfare; and Tactical Principles.

These four themes address both a direct and an indirect method to warfare, but Sun Tzu stressed that defeating your enemy indirectly was the greatest virtue because it husbanded your resources while attacking your foes’ central strengths.

Three key fundamentals underlie Sun Tzu:

• one was that warfare was the greatest affair of
  state;

• the second stressed the criticality of accurate intelligence, analysis and planning;

• and the last focused on correctly setting strategic objectives and the methods to attain them.

He believed “the highest realization of warfare is to attack the enemy’s plans;

next is to attack their alliances;

next to attack their army;

and the lowest is to attack their fortified cities.”

Whenever possible, victory should be achieved through diplomatic coercion, disrupting the enemy’s alliances, thwarting plans, and frustrating its strategy.

Command and Control, the second theme, is focused on three elements: the commander;
selecting, training and controlling the troops; and the psychology of Ch’i, or spirit.

He stresses the commander must be well versed in the execution of war and must have the utmost trust and freedom of the ruler. The soldiers must be well-trained and motivated thus forming a unified element.

To motivate and most effectively use his force Sun Tzu emphasized the concept of Ch’i, or spirit. Essentially, this involves ensuring a balance between multiple factors that make soldiers perform on an individual basis and motivate the army as a whole. Key to establishing a good command is understanding when your army is in “balance” and when it is not.

The development of strategies and the methods of warfare comprise the third theme.
Here, the ideas of deception, terrain, strategic power, and the use of indirect tactics stand out. Sun Tzu stressed that by selecting the most advantageous terrain, or conversely avoiding the poorest terrain, in conjunction with deceiving the enemy of your true intentions will cause the enemy to make fatal errors thus giving a commander the strategic and tactical advantage. The ideas of strategic and indirect power relate to the effective use of all elements of power that a state controls, including military, economic and diplomatic power, to influence the people’s will and build alliances. Use of these powers alone or together in creative ways will give a commander the decisive advantage.

The final theme can be described in terms of the tactical principles the commander
must understand. These include manipulating the enemy for your advantage, understanding
your army’s strength compared to that of your enemy, and choosing the correct formation for your army.

These four themes when analyzed and applied today provide a construct for an indirect
approach to war that is essential in our war against Islamic extremism.

The construct is comprised of three elements:

First, understanding your enemy--his strengths, weaknesses,
goals and motivations;

secondly, critically analyzing yourself--your strengths, weaknesses and
current strategies;

and finally having the flexibility to change or evolve current strategies based
on the first two elements.

This indirect construct will be applied through the remainder of this paper as we explore our understanding of the enemy, assess our own efforts and lastly, consider modifications to our current strategies in the war on terror.

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in
peril
—Sun Tzu