Eastern promises: a philosophical exploration of decision making under 'unconventional' and asymmetric competition

Bingfa, most popularly recognised in Western literary circles as the art of war, was an ancient Chinese treatise on strategy probably produced around 515-512 BC. Representing perhaps one of the most concise and comprehensive works on Eastern military strategy and decision making it primarily advocates indirect engagement with competitors, particularly where absolute certainty of success is limited. In this paper, utilising a series of propositions, the authors conduct a philosophical exploration into how Sun Tzu's work may possibly inform thinking on strategic decision making (hereafter SDM). The authors discuss how a sizeable body of literature exists which outlines how Sun Tzu may be applied to strategic decision making in the West. The reality however is that a large majority of such works remains largely conceptual in nature. Following these traditions, in this study the authors seek to utilise theories associated with social interpretation (hermeneutics) to relate Sun Tzu's work to SDM.