How do you understand Sun Tzu's concept of "Know the enemy and know yourself" and what is the significance of this concept in modern wars?

Introduction Sun Tzu's master piece "Art of War" has exercised a potent fascination over the minds of some of the greatest men in history. Beside military men, testimonies of pure literary men are even more remarkable. The following is an extract from the "Impartial Judgments in the Garden of Literature" by Cheng Hou: "Sun Tzu's 13 chapters are not only the staple and base of all military men's training, but also compel the most careful attention …

…and reconnaissance systems for enhanced battle-space awareness, and advanced command, control, communications, computing and Information (C4I) systems for increased battle-space control. All these technologies clearly highlights that what Sun Tzu professed 2500 years ago, is still valid and mandatory for a successful military power. "Knowing the enemy enables you to take the offensive, knowing yourself enables you to stand on the defensive." "Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack."