Episode 04 The Accounting of War

07/07/19 • 7 min

Sun Tzu examined the social and economic cost of war, and the law of supply and demand. Wars are costly, and costlier still if they are prolonged, so it is best to move fast and aim for a quick victory.

Previous Episode

Episode 03 The Assessment of War

In Sun Tzu’s opinion, the outcome of a war can be decided before it actually begins. In the first chapter of The Art of War, he listed several crucial questions for state leaders and military commanders to consider before they ride off to their favorite sports tournaments, or wars. In this episode, we’ll try to find out how he constructed the questions for this pre-war assessment.

Next Episode

Episode 05 The Strategies of War

The best approach is to go after the opponent’s strategy and defuse their initiative to fight; the second-best course of action is to work for a diplomatic victory; physical confrontation is fine in the absence of smarter solutions; but siege warfare should only be the last resort.