In the present time, when battles are no longer just kinetic in nature due to technological advancement, the old Chinese general Sun Tzu’s wisdom persists as a timely demand. Over the past 2,500 years ago, he exhorted the doctrine of strategic invisibility: know yourself, know your enemy, mask your true intentions, and win a war without fighting. These dictums aren’t merely the artifacts of ancient warfare but also a blueprint for contemporary warfare. From GPS spoofing attacks on the ships in the Black Sea to AI-generated propaganda campaigns in democratic elections, the 21st century has not divorced Sun Tzu; rather, it has embedded his ancient teachings into the nucleus of contemporary warfare.

Nations are now bringing life to Sun Tzu’s centuries-old saying, “Know thyself and know thy enemy,” through factors such as data fusion, surveillance, and behavioral profiling. Intelligence communities can now predict the next move of their opponent through real-time metadata, social listening, and AI-driven sentiment analysis. For instance, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s “MARS” program (Machine-Assisted Analytic Rapid-Repository System) relies on big data to generate predictive models of opponent actions. Likewise, China’s PLA........

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