Two such strategists, whose books can guide the leaders to come up with a sensible foreign policy, are The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Arthashastra by Chanakya. What is more interesting is that many ideas and concepts that latter-day strategists and scholars, mostly Westerners, made popular, such as balance of power, psychological warfare, espionage etc that can be found in the works of these two ancient Asians who wrote more than two millennia ago.
Both Sun Tzu and Chanakya were product of their times. Sun Tzu was born some 2,500 years ago when there was no unified China, and the six kingdoms that existed then were always fighting among themselves, in an era often referred to as the Warring States Period in Chinese history.
Similarly, at the time of Chanakya, some 2,300 years ago, there was no unified India. There were many kingdoms and republics within India and they always fought with each other. Alliances between the states were made and broken, their frontiers expanded and shrank, and treaties between them signed and nullified. However, even amidst the chaos and uncertainty, the idea of a unified country existed in both India and China which was later turned into a reality in India by none other than Chanakya’s student, Chandragupta Maurya, in 321 BC and in China by Qin Shihuang in 221 BC, following the strategy outlined by Sun Tzu in The Art of War.
Sun Tzu’s main concern is not how to win a war. According to him, winning a war is secondary. His primary concern is how to avoid fighting a war altogether. For Sun Tzu, the greatest victory is the one that is won without fighting a war. And for this, he suggests building alliances, similar to that of the modern concept of the balance of power. He suggests going to war only when it is absolutely unavoidable. He not only lists the factors that determine the outcome of any war, such as geographic terrains, the ability of generals to mobilize their troops effectively, weather conditions etc, but also the strategies to be employed to win it, such as psychological warfare, deception, arson, espionage, and counterespionage. He sees war as a complex process that needs, above anything else, a valid reason; that is why a war is being fought in the first place. Preparation, that is, intelligence and military training; and management, that is, how the war will be funded and which general will lead it, because a small mistake in any of these areas can cost the country dearly. Therefore, his advice to the generals: If the war is being planned to satisfy the whims of rulers, then don’t fight it. But if the war is being fought to protect the country and the people, fight it, but make sure that it ends quickly. He warns against protracted wars because of the economic and human costs involved.
The book, divided in 13 chapters, cautions against fighting a war for no valid reason. And Vietnam, Iraq and other modern wars have proved that a war fought to satisfy the whims of rulers/ruling class does not yield a favorable outcome, no matter how weak the enemy.
If Sun Tzu’s book is about war, Chanakya’s book is about statecraft, and as such, covers all the aspects of running a state, from economy, laws, security, to foreign relations. When it comes to foreign relations, Chanakya is a political realist, and his advice to the rulers is: Peace is to be preferred to war; however, when the situation demands, a war has to be fought. Quite similar to Sun Tzu, he too believes that a war has to be fought only after a thorough preparation, that is, by training and funding the military for campaigns, and gathering intelligence by mobilizing the secret agents. War for the sake of war is disastrous for the ruler and the country, and military campaigns should be avoided at best. Although he advises the ruler to maintain a healthy skepticism of the enemy – that is, the neighboring countries – it does not mean that they should be attacked for no reasons. Like Sun Tzu, he believes that war is a costly affair. According to him, “For, in war, there are many disadvantages, such as loss of troops, expenditure and absence from home.” Therefore, he focuses on maintaining peace through active diplomacy, that is, signing treaties and forging alliances—sandhi (treaties), samshraya (seeking protection of a stronger king when threatened) and dvaidibhava (forging alliances against another country).
War, according to him, has many faces. Besides military campaigns, there are other ways to protect one’s national interests by engaging in diplomatic offensives, covert operations, support to subversive elements in the hostile countries. If we are to look at what is happening in the world today, we see many examples of countries using these methods to protect their national interests. For example, the US economic blockade of Cuba and its support of anti-establishment forces there, and its insistence on international economic embargoes on North Korea and Iran are nothing but using diplomatic offensive to what it views as protecting its national interests.
As Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian soldier and military theorist of the 18th century, aptly puts it: “War is a continuation of politics by other means” and no nation except Japan has renounced the use of violence in conducting its foreign policy. Others have not, which means the threat of wars always exists. In this context, Sun Tzu’s and Chanakya’s suggestions to maintain peace as long as it is possible and practice maximum restraint, and go for a military campaign only when it is a must, are still relevant in today’s world. If we heed the suggestions of these two strategists, senseless wars can be stopped to make the world a relatively peaceful and safer place.
Writer’s note: The Art of War and Arthashastra are classics and have been translated into English by many scholars. In writing this piece, I have relied on the translations by Ralph D Sawyer of The Art of War and L N Rangarajan of Arthashastra.
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