Sarah Paine — Why wars are so difficult to end
Sep 25, 2026 · 52:40
Sarah Paine explains why wars are easy to start, hard to end, and hardest to end on the terms you wanted, using the Russo-Japanese War as her model. Japan beat a far larger Russia by keeping limited objectives, securing Theodore Roosevelt as mediator, and stopping at its culminating point of victory. The Gulf War shows limited aims done cheaply—34 allies paid over $50 billion of US costs—while Korea's shifting aims twice exceeded the culminating point of victory. Paine traces how regional wars go global—the American Revolution, World War I, Japan's road to Pearl Harbor—and why defeated powers wage insurgencies to deny victory, as in Vietnam and Iraq. She closes with Clausewitz's limited versus unlimited objectives, Sun Tzu's death ground, and the questions to ask before any war.
