Sarah Paine — Why wars are so difficult to end

This is the final lecture in our series with Sarah Paine, and it's a fitting place to end. Sarah tackles war termination: why wars are easy to start, hard to end, and even harder to end on the terms you wanted. Using the Russo-Japanese War as a model, she explains what goes wrong when regional wars escalate into global ones, or when conventional victories turn into endless insurgencies. It's especially relevant given what's going on today. As we wrap up, I want to thank Sarah for doing this with me. It's been a real privilege to share her lectures with all of you. Thanks for watching. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒  00:00:00 – How Japan beat a far bigger Russia  00:08:18 – Clausewitz's culminating points of victory  00:14:24 – What finally made Russia give up?  00:26:54 – Gulf War: the war the US didn't pay for  00:30:31 – Korea and the cost of shifting war aims  00:34:48 – Sun Tzu's "death ground"  00:39:32 – How regional wars go global: WWI to Pearl Harbor  00:46:38 – Why insurgencies deny victory: China to Iraq  00:51:06 – Questions to ask before any war