In a Washington Post article about the Iraq War and how its advocates and detractors frame the struggles in historic terms, Patricia Sullivan, assistant professor of political science, argued that powerful nations tend to win wars when all they seek is an opponent’s submission, but tend to lose when victory requires an opponent’s cooperation.
“On one end of the spectrum are things you can achieve with brute force,” she said. “On the opposite end is getting an adversary to change a domestic or foreign policy—you want the adversary to change his behavior.”
