In Western society, war is a political and a practical thing; political, because a country's strategy is dependent upon the strength of alliances it builds and its understanding of the political alliances that exist amongst its opponents. This is not the case in Eastern society, where, at the time of Sun Tzu's writing of this book, a Warlord was an independent leader who sought to make alliances by first occupying a territory, leaving the alliance0making to the post-war time of peace when each territory agreed on its own ownership. This is one of many fundamental differences that makes this a philosophy book rather than a military one.
Strategy, according to Sun Tzu, is not just pertaining to the movements of troops. Sometimes it doesn't even involve troops. The most successful warlord arms himself with thought and planning, which is a far greater predictor of success than a big army and a lot of weapons. On the face of it this seems to fly in the face of good sense; after all, a thoughtful man with few weapons is not going to be about to out-power a man with an army of thousands and weapons for each of them. This is the point that the author is trying to make; a good, successful Warlord knows that if he is the man without weapons or soldiers than he needs to plan and strategize so that this apparent disadvantage becomes an advantage. This is why the author's idea of war involves patience. The warlord with the smaller bank of resources could perhaps invade a territory from within rather than invading with a big show of force. He can also identify weaknesses in the strength of the numbers that his enemy has, and can chip away at the weaknesses until the enemy's resources are diminished and the armies are more equally balanced. This, says Sun Tzu, is what is going to differentiate a general from a warlord.
The interesting thing about this book is that it is also used as a handbook for many situations in modern life, not just ancient warfare. It is used by businesses, to encourage better strategizing and planning, and it is applicable to almost every situation in life that involves one person's encounter with another. It is used as a philosophy for success rather than just as a handbook for successfully winning a war, which is not something that could be said of more militaristic or political books. It is a philosophy for success in any kind of conflict, rather than as a purely military based handbook for ancient warriors or warlords, which singles it out from other war-based texts of its time.
