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The Relevance of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to
Contemporary Maritime Strategy
Introduction
Lieutenant Commander Nick Watson
Royal Australian Navy
2006 Winner Open Section
Sun Tzu provides a cookbook guidance for statecraft, rather than a
comprehensive theory of war. 1
Colin Gray
Sun Tzu’s ancient Chinese treatise The Art of War has become one of the most well
known guides on strategy, but its guidance has been used mostly by grand-strategists
and land warfare specialists, not maritime strategists. Today, the scope of maritime
strategy has widened with an increased emphasis on littoral operations and maritime
power projection. Modern Western militaries have become so technologically
advanced that few can, or will, oppose them directly. Concurrently, global economic
interdependence and the value of maritime resources create a complex arena in which
maritime strategists must operate, and policing and diplomacy are becoming critical in
managing maritime affairs in peace and in war. All of these factors have led to change
in emphasis in maritime strategy away from pure naval warfighting.
As a result, the statecraft in The Art of War mentioned by Gray above is a benefit
for maritime strategy, and the military concepts within also should be relevant in
coping with a changing maritime strategic environment. To exhibit this, three broad
components of maritime strategy will be selected, and the four most relevant principles
of The Art of War will be distilled. The two sets will then be compared, and a detailed
analysis be made on the relevance, or not, of Sun Tzu’s work to contemporary maritime
strategy. Not every one of the four principles selected from The Art of War is relevant
to each component of maritime strategy, and so only a few will be compared in each
case. This approach will show the coherent strategic methodology of The Art of War in
addition to the timeless strategic concepts that are applicable to the maritime world.
Contemporary Maritime Strategy
Gray succinctly describes strategy 2 as: ‘the bridge that relates military power to political
purpose’. 3 A subset of this higher national strategy is maritime strategy, and a number