Abstract Policy-makers should perform a cost-benefit analysis before initiating a war. This article describes a methodology for such assessment, and applies it post hoc to five military actions undertaken by the United States between 1950 and 2000 (the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the invasion of Grenada, the invasion of Panama, and the First Gulf War). The analysis identifies three broad categories of value: human capital, economic outcomes, and national influence. Different stakeholders (politicians, generals, industry, etc.) may assign different weights to these three categories, so this analysis tabulates each separately, and then, as may sometimes be necessary, monetizes them for unified comparison.

中文翻译：

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自由战争的成本效益分析

摘要决策者应该在发动战争之前进行成本效益分析。本文介绍了进行这种评估的方法，并将其事后应用于美国在1950年至2000年之间进行的五次军事行动（朝鲜战争，越南战争，格林纳达入侵，巴拿马入侵和第一海湾战争）战争）。分析确定了三大类价值：人力资本，经济成果和国家影响力。不同的利益相关者（政治家，将军，行业等）可以为这三个类别分配不同的权重，因此此分析将每个类别分别制表，然后（有时可能需要）将它们货币化以进行统一比较。