An Assessment of the Global War on Terrorism through the Lens of Sun Tzu

Abstract

Assessing the conduct of Al-Qaeda in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) reveals that the organization has waged its war since 2002 using the principles of Sun-Tzu. It has sought to "out-wit" the United States by turning their weaknesses (small numbers/distributed operations) into strengths while at the same time, turning their enemies strengths (democratic principles/economic power/publicized strategy) into weaknesses. It has done so by seeking a protracted war that utilizes the concept of economy of force to extend the United States' military and degrade the financial health of the United States a strategy of financial attrition. The United States may have reacted to terroristic acts after 9/11 in line with this strategy and disproportionate to the actual threat.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 12, 2018
Accession Number
AD1177072

Entities

People

  • Michael S. Hritz

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Armored Vehicles
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • International Organizations
  • International Security
  • Marine Corps
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Political Systems
  • Public Policy
  • Security
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.