
Sean Gourley on the mathematics of war - _pius
http://www.ted.com/talks/sean_gourley_on_the_mathematics_of_war.html
======
jakarta
I'm not sure about why Gourley is so startled by the fact that these different
conflicts followed a similar pattern. Insurgencies, while caused for varying
reasons and fought by different actors still utilize very similar tactics and
often contain similar goals.

It's why Mao's teachings were able to carry over into other guerrilla
conflicts and why the US Army looked to situations like the British fighting
in Malay and the French experiences in Indochina and Algeria to formulate the
new counterinsurgency doctrine.

~~~
_pius
I didn't come away with the impression that he was as "startled" as you've
said. I think he was just playing this up to underscore the significance of it
to the audience.

It's an important contribution to creating a framework for computationally
reasoning about these conflicts.

