Essay about Sun Tzu vs. The Wisdom of the Desert

Conflict is all around us, and with conflict comes change. This idea is shown in real life, books, movies, and more. The book Among the Hidden and the real life conflict in South Sudan both show this idea. Conflict leads to change.

Moreover, as encouragement starts the fighting spirit in soldiers, endurance and perseverance keeps it going. Encouragement and endurance go hand in hand because each benefits the other, and both will fail if one does not help the other. People such as George Washington showed great perseverance during the course of the war. As a result, the author wrote that, “Without Washington’s leadership and unrelenting perseverance, the revolution almost certainly would have failed” (294). This shows that Washington’s importance as a leader is crucial that pushes people on to do better than before. Because of this, endurance is vital to a war’s progress.

Nicolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War both both provide directions for leadership with similar goals. The Prince is primarily geared towards providing valuable information about how a ruler of many principalities may govern different populations and acquire new lands. The Art of War provides us with a schematic of the optimal path to victory. This book is instead directed towards generals of powerful militaries with only the goal of winning. Concepts such as Machiavelli’s view of destruction will be contrasted with Sun Tzu’s victory-oriented argument for taking whole and several of their other ideas will be compared. Although Machiavelli and Sun Tzu have different intended audiences, many of their ancient tactics can

Conflict is one of many challenges in everyday life. It is presented to us in many ways such as trying to figure out how to get your homework done on time, finding a way to win the football game, or something just as simple as trying to get out of doing your chores. However, there are times in everyone's life where your conflict is beyond the norm. These could include standing up to your school bully, trying to save someone’s life, or as many would say the greatest conflict in human history, the Nazis rise to power. There are many ways to solve a conflict in general no matter how morally wrong it is. However, history has shown time and time again that the best way to solve a conflict is to stand up to it while also

Successful leadership on a battlefield can be measured in different ways. It is possible for a good, successful leader to lose a battle. Conversely, it is possible for an ineffective leader to win a battle, given the right circumstances. What distinguishes a successful leader from an unsuccessful one is his/her ability to oversee an operation using effective mission command. In ADP 6-0, mission command as a philosophy is defined as “as the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations” (ADP, 1).

Throughout the world`s history, conflict and power has being an important topic to be discussed and analyzed among scholars and researchers. Conflict and power can be found in several areas and levels such as colonization process, wars, inside an organization, and even in our own family, and it can have political, economic, social and cultural reasons. However, there are different types of power such as Reward, Coercive, Referent, Expert and Legitimate, and three perspectives of conflict as Traditional, Interpretive and Critical. Based on these concepts, this paper will explain the conflict and the resolution pointed in a case study, then it will identify the type of power and the perspective of conflict presented in the case, and lastly it will relate the case study with the cooperation and competition model.

The fighting and destructive powers of humans have been on display since prehistoric times with many tribes constantly finding ways to fight and kill one another for their own benefit. This long-term fighting shows that human beings have a natural instinct towards violence and conflict between one another. Even after thousands of years, it is safe to say that war never changes. Both The Iliad and The Things They Carried showed how human beings have a natural tendency towards superiority and conflict but do not have a proper way to cope with the emotional trauma that comes with it.

Ever since the days of Mesopotamia from the agricultural revolution, war has been a constant and important part of human life. Over time though, humans have evolved and gotten stronger and smarter which lead to more competition. War from its beginning, has consistently stemmed from the innate sense of evolutionary survival and subsequent competition, thus securing it’s inevitable perpetuation.

Throughout human history, war has stood as a universal reaction to various conflicts between diverse peoples. War can embed itself into a culture over generations of fighting. It can generate cultures that base themselves around the concept of war, creating hostile and bellicose peoples. At times, war may not even have grounds, but the aggressive nature of the people often cause it to proceed without justification. These wars often proceed due to perceptions conceived within the depths of peoples’ imaginations. Irrational assumptions, fears of the unknown, and the development of nonexistent threats allow the justification of these wars within the individuals. In A Separate Peace, wars such as these are seen between the characters and

He acknowledges the idea that others look at conflict theory as pertaining to specific events in history; however, he insists that it is more than that and that “the perspective is much broader and includes all of what goes on in society” (Collins 1994:47). He stresses upon the fact that it is not about simply having conflicts occur, but rather, how domination happens even when conflict is not outwardly occuring (Collins 1994:47).

There are moments in our history where the citizens of the world stand up and for their beliefs, their honor, and themselves. They come together to reform the existing government that is holding them back from achieving their desired lifestyle. When this occurs, most likely, war is inevitable to follow. When war comes to a country, death and destruction is destined. Leaders and rules change, but the pride of its citizens prevails and becomes

War has been treated as an acceptable response to political or personal disagreements. The Bhagavad-Gita shows how a person can have a moral dilemma when faced with the prospect of fighting against people who are familiar. This story explains how, if there are no other options available to solve a dispute, then violent conflicts are acceptable responses. The use of armed conflict to resolve any political or personal disputes has been a theme that is visible in famous warrior stories. The Odyssey, The Ramayana of Valmiki, and The Bhagavad-Gita all deal with conflicts of war and how it can affect the lives of those involved. Violence as a solution to combat any disagreements or problems has been viewed as noble and necessary in many stories. Armed conflict and violence has an effect on everyone involved and the aftermath can be just as destructive as the initial fighting. The characters in these stories are defined by their status as a warrior and hero. A man’s ability to be successful in battle has been praised in these stories. Odysseus and Rama are both viewed as strong heroes and they have been praised for the violent actions taken in order to solve the situations in their lives. Arjuna was a warrior who was expected to fight against loved ones because that was his job as a solider. The nature of war in these ancient stories showed how accepted and valued violence conflicts were to a hero’s status and legend.

Another significant lesson on warfare and leadership put forth by Sun Tzu was having the ability to conquer areas with no fighting at all. This lesson also involved the ability to absorb and expand within an area instead of total domination and annihilation. Sun Tzu mentioned, “In the practical art of

Lessons from the Sun Tzu theory of war about potential war between Vietnam and China in 21st Century

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved. By Sun Tzu