| This thesis is a comparative study of the strategies of East Asian limited wars--Japanese strategy in the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, Soviet strategy in the Nomonhan War of 1939, and Chinese strategy in the Korean War of 1950-1953--in light of Sun Zi and Carl von Clausewitz. Sun Zi's and Clausewitz' perceptions of strategy with emphasis on material and cultural power made the strong impacts on Japanese, Soviet, and Chinese strategic thoughts. By focusing on the interaction between material and cultural power, the thesis explained how Japan, the Soviet Union, and China developed strategies on the basis of their material power and, in turn, how their cultures shaped or reshaped such strategies. To achieve limited objectives in regional limited wars, the thesis found, material and cultural control over mutually reinforced objectives, costs, and means through cooperation between states helped indeed formulate explicit or tacit rules, distribute costs and benefits, and employ limited human and technological means. Materially and culturally oriented rules, costs, and means constituted the essence of the strategies of East Asian limited wars. |
