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Has Clausewitz's Western philosophy of war proven superior to Sun Tzu's Eastern philosophy of war?
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June 5th, 2010
The Eastern philosophy of war is usually characterized by Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, in which the approach is to use finesse and subterfuge to cause the enemy to defeat itself through the use of strategy.
The Western philosophy of war is usually characterized by Carl von Clausewitz’s Vom Kriege, in which the approach is to recognize the hard realities of politics on the battlefield, and to render the enemy politically helpless as quickly and ruthlessly as possible.
Given the current dominance of Western hegemony and its efficiency in organizing oppression and violence, one could make a good argument that the Western philosophy of war has proven superior to Eastern (and certainly we’ve seen when there has been direct conflict, as in the fighting between Japan and the US in the Second World War, that the West has emerged decidedly victorious).
Do you believe that von Clausewitz has proven superior to the philosophy of Sun Tzu?
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