An Electronic Art of War in 36 Stratagems

Pervasive throughout our society, Electronics in radar, radios, telephones, computers or computer networks is an extraordinary lever for power for those who control it. While technical in nature, it can nonetheless become a dreadful vulnerability for those who do not understand it. Describing the influence that Electronics has had in History through famous events of recent conflicts offers even novices a didactic approach to understand the issues without getting lost in technical concepts that remain incomprehensible to ordinary mortals. Designed to raise awareness, this book draws on a world-famous reference, The Thirty-Six Stratagems. Much like The Art of War written by Sun Tsu, each chapter of this Chinese classic work addresses a historical and/or strategic principle, then illustrates it using similar examples. In this “revisited” version, each of these thirty-six stratagems are completed by a modern interpretation selected from anecdotes of modern electronic warfare, espionage in telecommunications or hacking in cyberspace.
A dynamic text and a definitive compendium to (re)discover Electronics in our society.

“Understand today and foresee tomorrow by (re)discovering yesterday.”


An electronic systems engineer in the defence sector, Olivier Terrien is an active member of Guerrelec, French Chapter of the Association of Old Crows (AOC). Auditor for France’s Institution of Advanced Studies of National Defence (IHEDN), he has published hundreds of pages in the international press on a variety of subjects including strategy, military history and influence of Electronics in conflicts during the twentieth century.