War

This article is about war in general. For other uses, see war (disambiguation) and The War.

War is a state of organized, armed and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, societal disruption, and usually high mortality. In addition to the existence of this organized behavior pattern amongst human primates, very similar warlike behavior patterns are also found in many other primate species such as chimpanzees, as well as in many ant species. The set of techniques used by a group to carry out war is known as warfare. An absence of war is usually called peace.

War generally involves two or more organized groups or parties. Such a conflict is always an attempt at altering either the psychological or material hierarchy of domination or equality between such groups. In all cases, at least one participant (group) in the conflict perceives the need to either psychologically or materially dominate the other participant and is unable or unwilling to accept or permit the possibility of a true relationship of fundamental equality to exist between the groups who have opted for group violence (war).

The attempt to establish or maintain domination and to avoid equality, is a precipitating factor in all wars, i.e. one group wishing to dominate another. Attempts at domination are also often the primary precipitating factor in individual one-on-one violence outside of the context of war, i.e. one individual attempting to dominate another.

In 2003, Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problems facing the society of mankind for the next fifty years. In the 1832 treatise "On War", Prussian military general and theoretician Carl Von Clausewitz, defined war as follows: "War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will."

War is a seemingly inescapable and integral aspect of human culture. Its practice is not linked to any single type of political organization or society. Rather, as discussed by John Keegan in his History Of Warfare, war is a universal phenomenon whose form and scope is defined by the society that wages it. The conduct of war extends along a continuum, from the almost universal primitive endemic warfare that began well before recorded human history, to advanced nuclear warfare between global alliances, with the recently developed ultimate potential for human extinction.

Etymology

Mural of War (1896), by Gari Melchers.

The English word war derives from the late Old English (c.1050) words wyrre and werre; the Old North French werre; the Frankish werra; and the Proto-Germanic werso. The denotation of war derives from the Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, and the German verwirren: “to confuse”, “to perplex”, and “to bring into confusion”. Another posited derivation is from the Ancient Greek barbaros, the Old-Persian varhara, and the Sanscrit varvar and barbara. In German, the equivalent is Krieg; the equivalent Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian words for war is guerra, derived from the Germanic werra (“fight”, “tumult”). Etymologic legend has it that the Romanic peoples adopted a foreign, Germanic word for war, to avoid using the Latin bellum, because, when sounded, it tended to merge with the sound of the word bello (beautiful).

History of warfare

Main article: History of war

Before the dawn of civilization, war likely consisted of small-scale raiding. One half of the people found in a Nubian cemetery dating to as early as 12,000 years ago had died of violence. Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20)."

In War Before Civilization, Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, says that approximately 90–95% of known societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare, and many fought constantly. For instance, between 1801 and 1840, Māoris engaged in 633 recorded intertribal battles.

The percentages of men killed in war in eight tribal societies, and Europe and the U.S. in the 20th century. (Lawrence H. Keeley, Archeologist)

William D. Rubinstein said that "Pre-literate societies, even those organised in a relatively advanced way, were renowned for their studied cruelty . . . in 1826 Shaka and an army of 50,000 literally destroyed the Ndwandwe, a rival tribe. This report stated that the Ndwandwe numbered at least 40,000: 'they were all put to death' ". Historically, more than a third of the Yanomamö males, on average, died from warfare. American anthropologist Chagnon claimed that men who participated in killings had more wives and children than those who did not.

In Western Europe, since the late 18th century, more than 150 conflicts and about 600 battles have taken place.

The Human Security Report 2005 documented a significant decline in the number and severity of armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. However, the evidence examined in the 2008 edition of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management's "Peace and Conflict" study indicated that the overall decline in conflicts had stalled.

Recent rapid increases in the technologies of war, and therefore in its destructiveness (see Mutual assured destruction), have caused widespread public concern, and have in all probability forestalled, and may hopefully altogether prevent the outbreak of a nuclear World War III. At the end of each of the last two World Wars, concerted and popular efforts were made to come to a greater understanding of the underlying dynamics of war and to thereby hopefully reduce or even eliminate it all together. These efforts materialized in the forms of the League of Nations, and its successor, the United Nations.

Shortly after World War II, as a token of support for this concept, most nations joined the United Nations. During this same post-war period, with the aim of further delegitimizing war as an acceptable and logical extension of foreign policy, most national governments also renamed their Ministries or Departments of War as their Ministries or Departments of Defense, for example, the former US Department of War was renamed as the US Department of Defense .

In 1947, in view of the rapidly increasingly destructive consequences of modern warfare, and with a particular concern for the consequences and costs of the newly developed atom bomb, the initial developer of the concept of this bomb, Albert Einstein famously stated, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Fortunately, the anticipated costs of a possible third world war are currently no longer deemed as acceptable by most, thus little motivation currently seems to exist on an international level for such a war.

Still since the close of World War II, limited non-nuclear conflicts continue, and surprisingly enough, some outspoken celebrities and politicians have even advocated for the proclamation of another world war. Mao Zedong urged the socialist camp not to fear nuclear war with the United States since, even if 'half of mankind died, the other half would remain while imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist'.

Motivations

File:WWI.gif

World War I, sequences from Romania

Motivations for war may be different for those ordering the war than for those undertaking the war. For a state to prosecute a war it must have the support of its leadership, its military forces, and its people. For example, in the Third Punic War, Rome's leaders may have wished to make war with Carthage for the purpose of eliminating a resurgent rival, while the individual soldiers may have been motivated by a wish to make money. Since many people are involved, a war may acquire a life of its own from the confluence of many different motivations.

The Jewish Talmud describes in the BeReshit Rabbah commentary on the fight between Cain and Abel (Parashot BeReshit XXII:7) that there are three universal reasons for wars: A) Economic, B) Ideological/religious, and C) Power/pride/love (personal).

In Why Nations Go to War, by John G. Stoessinger, the author points out that both sides will claim that morality justifies their fight. He also states that the rationale for beginning a war depends on an overly optimistic assessment of the outcome of hostilities (casualties and costs), and on misperceptions of the enemy's intentions.

As the strategic and tactical aspects of warfare are always changing, theories and doctrines relating to warfare are often reformulated before, during, and after every major war. Carl Von Clausewitz said, 'Every age had its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions, and its own peculiar preconceptions.'. The one constant factor is war’s employment of organized violence and the resultant destruction of property and/ or lives that necessarily follows.

Behavioral psychology

Dutch Psychoanalyst Joost Meerloo held that, "War is often ... a mass discharge of accumulated internal rage (where)... the inner fears of mankind are discharged in mass destruction." Thus war can sometimes be a means by which man's own frustration at his inability to master his own self is expressed and temporarily relieved via his unleashing of destructive behavior upon others. In this destructive scenario, these others are made to serve as the scapegoat of man's own unspoken and subconscious frustrations and fears.

Some psychologists such as E.F.M. Durban and John Bowlby have argued that human beings are inherently violent. This aggressiveness is fueled by displacement and projection where a person transfers their grievances into bias and hatred against other races, religions, nations or ideologies. By this theory the nation state preserves order in the local society while creating an outlet for aggression through warfare. If war is innate to human nature, as is presupposed and predetermined by many psychological theories, then there is little hope of ever escaping it.

The Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari, a follower of Melanie Klein, thought that war was the paranoid or projective “elaboration” of mourning. Fornari thought that war and violence develop out of our “love need”: our wish to preserve and defend the sacred object to which we are attached, namely our early mother and our fusion with her. For the adult, nations are the sacred objects that generate warfare. Fornari focused upon sacrifice as the essence of war: the astonishing willingness of human beings to die for their country, to give over their bodies to their nation.

Despite Fornari's theory that man's altruistic desire for self-sacrifice for a noble cause is a contributing factor towards war, in history only a tiny fraction of wars have originated from a desire for war from the general populace. Far more often the general population has been reluctantly drawn into war by its rulers. One psychological theory that looks at the leaders is advanced by Maurice Walsh. He argues that the general populace is more neutral towards war and that wars only occur when leaders with a psychologically abnormal disregard for human life are placed into power. War is caused by leaders that seek war such as Napoleon and Hitler. Such leaders most often come to power in times of crisis when the populace opts for a decisive leader, who then leads the nation to war.

Evolutionary psychology

A distinct branch of the psychological theories of war are the arguments based on evolutionary psychology. This school tends to see war as an extension of animal behavior, such as territoriality and competition. Animals are naturally aggressive, and in humans this aggression manifests itself as warfare. However, while war has a natural cause, the development of technology has accelerated human destructiveness to a level that is irrational and damaging to the species. The earliest advocate of this theory was Konrad Lorenz.

Biologists studying primate behavior have also added to the debate. Jane Goodall in 1974 documented what she called a war between groups of chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park of Tanzania.

BBC narrator Sir David Attenborough mentioned a 'raid into the territory of their neighbors' by a group of Chimps in the series Planet Earth.

These theories have been criticized by scholars such as John G. Kennedy, who argue that the organized, sustained war of humans differs more than just technologically from the territorial fights between non-human animals. Ashley Montagu strongly denies such universalistic instinctual arguments, pointing out that social factors and childhood socialization are important in determining the nature and presence of warfare. Thus while human aggression may be a universal occurrence, warfare is not, and would appear to have been a historical invention, associated with certain types of human societies.

Economic theories

War can be seen as a growth of economic competition in a competitive international system. In this view wars begin as a pursuit of markets for natural resources and for wealth. While this theory has been applied to many conflicts, such counter arguments become less valid as the increasing mobility of capital and information level the distributions of wealth worldwide, or when considering that it is relative, not absolute, wealth differences that may fuel wars. There are those on the extreme right of the political spectrum who provide support, fascists in particular, by asserting a natural right of the strong to whatever the weak cannot hold by force.

Marxist theories

The Marxist theory of war is quasi-economic in that it states that all modern wars are caused by competition for resources and markets between great (imperialist) powers, claiming these wars are a natural result of the free market and class system. Part of the theory is that war will only disappear once a world revolution, over-throwing free markets and class systems, has occurred. German Communist Rosa Luxembourg theorized that imperialism was the result of capitalist countries needing new markets. Expansion of the means of production is only possible if there is a corresponding growth in consumer demand. Since the workers in a capitalist economy would be unable to fill the demand, producers must expand into non-capitalist markets to find consumers for their goods, hence driving imperialism.

Demographic theories

Demographic theories can be grouped into two classes, Malthusian theories and youth bulge theories.

Malthusian theories

Malthusian theories see expanding population and scarce resources as a source of violent conflict.

Pope Urban II in 1095, on the eve of the First Crusade, spoke:

"For this land which you now inhabit, shut in on all sides by the sea and the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; it scarcely furnishes food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour one another, that you wage wars, and that many among you perish in civil strife. Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let your quarrels end. Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre; wrest that land from a wicked race, and subject it to yourselves."

This is one of the earliest expressions of what has come to be called the Malthusian theory of war, in which wars are caused by expanding populations and limited resources. Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) wrote that populations always increase until they are limited by war, disease, or famine.

This theory is thought by Malthusians to account for the relative decrease in wars during the past fifty years, especially in the developed world, where advances in agriculture have made it possible to support a much larger population than was formerly the case, and where birth control has dramatically slowed the increase in population.

Youth bulge theory

Median age by country. A youth bulge is evident for Africa, and to a lesser extent for South and Southeast Asia and Central America.

Youth bulge theory differs significantly from Malthusian theories. Its adherents see a combination of large male youth cohorts - as graphically represented as a "youth bulge" in a population pyramid - with a lack of regular, peaceful employment opportunities as a risk pool for violence.

While Malthusian theories focus on a disparity between a growing population and available natural resources, youth bulge theory focuses on a disparity between non-inheriting, 'excess' young males and available social positions within the existing social system of division of labour.

Contributors to the development of youth bulge theory include French sociologist Gaston Bouthoul, U.S. sociologist Jack A. Goldstone, U.S. political scientist Gary Fuller, and German sociologist Gunnar Heinsohn. Samuel Huntington has modified his Clash of Civilizations theory by using youth bulge theory as its foundation:

I don't think Islam is any more violent than any other religions, and I suspect if you added it all up, more people have been slaughtered by Christians over the centuries than by Muslims. But the key factor is the demographic factor. Generally speaking, the people who go out and kill other people are males between the ages of 16 and 30.

During the 1960s, 70s and 80s there were high birth rates in the Muslim world, and this has given rise to a huge youth bulge. But the bulge will fade. Muslim birth rates are going down; in fact, they have dropped dramatically in some countries. Islam did spread by the sword originally, but I don't think there is anything inherently violent in Muslim theology."

Youth Bulge theories represent a relatively recent development but seem to have become more influential in guiding U.S. foreign policy and military strategy as both Goldstone and Fuller have acted as consultants to the U.S. Government. CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson referred to youth bulge theory in his 2002 report "The National Security Implications of Global Demographic Change".

According to Heinsohn, who has proposed youth bulge theory in its most generalized form, a youth bulge occurs when 30 to 40 percent of the males of a nation belong to the "fighting age" cohorts from 15 to 29 years of age. It will follow periods with total fertility rates as high as 4-8 children per woman with a 15-29 year delay.

A total fertility rate of 2.1 children born by a woman during her lifetime represents a situation of in which the son will replace the father, and the daughter will replace the mother. Thus, a total fertility rate of 2.1 represents replacement level, while anything below represents a sub-replacement fertility rate leading to population decline.

Total fertility rates above 2.1 will lead to population growth and to a youth bulge. A total fertility rate of 4-8 children per mother implies 2-4 sons per mother. Consequently, one father has to leave not 1, but 2 to 4 social positions (jobs) to give all his sons a perspective for life, which is usually hard to achieve. Since respectable positions cannot be increased at the same speed as food, textbooks and vaccines, many "angry young men" find themselves in a situation that tends to escalate their adolescent anger into violence: they are

1. Demographically superfluous,
2. Might be out of work or stuck in a menial job, and
3. Often have no access to a legal sex life before a career can earn them enough to provide for a family. See: Hypergamy, Waithood.

The combination of these stress factors according to Heinsohn usually heads for one of six different exits:

1. Emigration ("non violent colonization")
2. Violent Crime
3. Rebellion or putsch
4. Civil war and/or revolution
5. Genocide (to take over the positions of the slaughtered)
6. Conquest (violent colonization, frequently including genocide abroad).

Religions and ideologies are seen as secondary factors that are being used to legitimate violence, but will not lead to violence by themselves if no youth bulge is present. Consequently, youth bulge theorists see both past "Christianist" European colonialism and imperialism and today's "Islamist" civil unrest and terrorism as results of high birth rates producing youth bulges. With the Gaza Strip now being seen as another example of youth-bulge-driven violence, especially if compared to Lebanon which is geographically close, yet remarkably more peaceful.

Among prominent historical events that have been linked to the existence of youth bulges is the role played by the historically large youth cohorts in the rebellion and revolution waves of early modern Europe, including French Revolution of 1789, and the importance of economic depression hitting the largest German youth cohorts ever in explaining the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s. The 1994 Rwandan Genocide has also been analyzed as following a massive youth bulge.

While the implications of population growth have been known since the completion of the National Security Study Memorandum 200 in 1974, neither the U.S. nor the WHO have implemented the recommended measures to control population growth to avert the terrorist threat. Prominent demographer Stephen D. Mumford attributes this to the influence of the Catholic Church.

Youth Bulge theory has been subjected to statistical analysis by the World Bank, Population Action International, and the Berlin Institute for Population and Development. Detailed demographic data for most countries is available at the international database of the United States Census Bureau. Statistic data about historical development of demographic and economic parameters over the last 200 years for each country can be visualized at Gapminder.

Youth bulge theories have been criticized as leading to racial, gender and age "discrimination".

Rationalist theories

Rationalist theories of war assume that both sides to a potential war are rational, which is to say that each side wants to get the best possible outcome for itself for the least possible loss of life and property to its own side. Given this assumption, if both countries knew in advance how the war would turn out, it would be better for both of them to just accept the post-war outcome without having to actually pay the costs of fighting the war. This is based on the notion, generally agreed to by almost all scholars of war since Carl von Clausewitz, that wars are reciprocal, that all wars require both a decision to attack and also a decision to resist attack. Rationalist theory offers three reasons why some countries cannot find a bargain and instead resort to war: issue indivisibility, information asymmetry with incentive to deceive, and the inability to make credible commitments.

Issue indivisibility occurs when the two parties cannot avoid war by bargaining because the thing over which they are fighting cannot be shared between them, only owned entirely by one side or the other. Religious issues, such as control over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, are more likely to be indivisible than economic issues.

A bigger branch of the theory, advanced by scholars of international relations such as Geoffrey Blainey, is that both sides decide to go to war and one side may have miscalculated.

Some go further and say that there is a problem of information asymmetry with incentives to misrepresent. The two countries may not agree on who would win a war between them, or whether victory would be overwhelming or merely eked out, because each side has military secrets about its own capabilities. They will not avoid the bargaining failure by sharing their secrets, since they cannot trust each other not to lie and exaggerate their strength to extract more concessions. For example, Sweden made efforts to deceive Nazi Germany that it would resist an attack fiercely, partly by playing on the myth of Aryan superiority and by making sure that Hermann Göring only saw elite troops in action, often dressed up as regular soldiers, when he came to visit.

The American decision to enter the Vietnam War was made with the full knowledge that the communist forces would resist them, but did not believe that the guerrillas had the capability to long oppose American forces.

Thirdly, bargaining may fail due to the states' inability to make credible commitments. In this scenario, the two countries might be able to come to a bargain that would avert war if they could stick to it, but the benefits of the bargain will make one side more powerful and lead it to demand even more in the future, so that the weaker side has an incentive to make a stand now.

Rationalist explanations of war can be critiqued on a number of grounds. The assumptions of cost-benefit calculations become dubious in the most extreme genocidal cases of World War II, where the only bargain offered in some cases was infinitely bad. Rationalist theories typically assume that the state acts as a unitary individual, doing what is best for the state as a whole; this is problematic when, for example, the country's leader is beholden to a very small number of people, as in a personalistic dictatorship. Rationalist theory also assumes that the actors are rational, able to accurately assess their likelihood of success or failure, but the proponents of the psychological theories above would disagree.

Rationalist theories are usually explicated with game theory, for example, the Peace War Game, not a wargame as such, rather a simulation of economic decisions underlying war.

Political science theories

The statistical analysis of war was pioneered by Lewis Fry Richardson following World War I. More recent databases of wars and armed conflict have been assembled by the Correlates of War Project, Peter Brecke and the Uppsala Conflict Data Program.

There are several different international relations theory schools. Supporters of realism in international relations argue that the motivation of states is the quest for security. Which sometimes is argued to contradict the realist view, that there is much empirical evidence to support the claim that states that are democracies do not go to war with each other, an idea that has come to be known as the democratic peace theory. Other factors included are difference in moral and religious beliefs, economical and trade disagreements, declaring independence, and others.

Another major theory relating to power in international relations and machtpolitik is the Power Transition theory, which distributes the world into a hierarchy and explains major wars as part of a cycle of hegemons being destabilized by a great power which does not support the hegemons' control.

Military adventurism can sometimes be used by political leaders as a means of boosting their domestic popularity, as has been recorded in US war-time presidential popularity surveys taken during the presidencies of several recent US leaders.

Morality of wars

"The morning after the battle of Waterloo", by John Heaviside Clarke, 1816.

Throughout history war has been the source of serious moral questions. Although many ancient nations and some modern ones have viewed war as noble, over the sweep of history, concerns about the morality of war have gradually increased. Today, war is seen by some as undesirable and morally problematic. At the same time, many view war, or at least the preparation and readiness and willingness to engage in war, as necessary for the defense of their country and therefore a just war. Pacifists believe that war is inherently immoral and that no war should ever be fought.

Another supporter of war, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, favoured it as part of the necessary process required for history to unfold and allow society to progress. At the outbreak of World War I, the writer Thomas Mann wrote, "Is not peace an element of civil corruption and war a purification, a liberation, an enormous hope?" This attitude has been embraced by societies from Sparta and Rome in the ancient world to the fascist states of the 1930s. Support for war continues to this day, especially regarding the notion of a Just War (necessary wars required to halt an aggressor or otherwise dangerous nation or group).

International law recognizes only two cases for a legitimate war:

1. Wars of defense: when one nation is attacked by an aggressor, it is considered legitimate for a nation along with its allies to defend itself against the aggressor.

2. Wars sanctioned by the UN Security Council: when the United Nations as a whole acts as a body against a certain nation. Examples include various peacekeeping or peace-enforcing operations around the world, as well as the Korean War and 1st Gulf War.

The subset of international law known as the law of war or international humanitarian law also recognises regulations for the conduct of war, including the Geneva Conventions governing the legitimacy of certain kinds of weapons, and the treatment of prisoners of war. Cases where these conventions are broken are considered war crimes, and since the Nuremberg Trials at the end of World War II the international community has established a number of tribunals to try such cases.

A nation's economy is often stimulated by government war-spending. When countries wage war, more weapons, armor, ammunition, and the like are needed to be created and sold to the armies, thus their economies can enter a boom (or war economy) reducing unemployment. A very popular example of this was the United States' ability to overcome the Great Depression with the onset of World War II, emerging afterwards as one of two superpowers (the other being the USSR). Note though that this doesn't result in net increase of a nation's prosperity—see Parable of the broken window; the U.S. went into deep debt as a result of unprecedented war spending File:US Federal Debt.png.

Conduct of wars

The war, to become known as one, must entail some degree of confrontation using weapons and other military technology and equipment by armed forces employing military tactics and Operational art within the broad military strategy subject to military logistics. War Studies by military theorists throughout military history have sought to identify the Philosophy of war, and to reduce it to a Military science.

In general, modern military science considers several factors before a National defence policy is created to allow a war to commence: the environment in the area(s) of combat operations, the posture national forces will adopt on the commencement of a war, and the type of warfare troops will be engaged in.

Behaviour and conduct in war

The nature of warfare never changes, only its superficial manifestations. Joshua and David, Hector and Achilles would recognize the combat that our soldiers and Marines have waged in the alleys of Somalia and Iraq. The uniforms evolve, bronze gives way to titanium, arrows may be replaced by laser-guided bombs, but the heart of the matter is still killing your enemies until any survivors surrender and do your will.

— Ralph Peters

The behaviour of troops in warfare varies considerably, both individually and as units or armies. In some circumstances, troops may engage in genocide, war rape and ethnic cleansing. Commonly, however, the conduct of troops may be limited to posturing and sham attacks, leading to highly rule-bound and often largely symbolic combat in which casualties are much reduced from that which would be expected if soldiers were genuinely violent towards the enemy. Situations of deliberate dampening of hostilities occurred in World War I by some accounts, e.g., a volley of gunfire being exchanged after a misplaced mortar hit the British line, after which a German soldier shouted an apology to British forces, effectively stopping a hostile exchange of gunfire. Other examples of non-aggression, also from World War I, are detailed in Goodbye to all that. These include spontaneous ceasefires to rebuild defences and retrieve casualties, alongside behaviour such as refusing to shoot at enemy during ablutions and the taking of great risks (described as 1 in 20) to retrieve enemy wounded from the battlefield. The most notable spontaneous ceasefire of World War I was the Christmas truce.

It has been postulated that sport serves as an direct alternative to war, and may be regarded as having an equivalent social function. Sipes found war and sporting alternatives to be positively correlated.

The psychological separation between combatants, and the destructive power of modern weaponry, may act to override this effect and facilitate participation by combatants in the mass slaughter of combatants or civilians, such as in the bombing of Dresden in World War II. The unusual circumstances of warfare can incite apparently normal individuals to commit atrocities.

Types of warfare

Conventional warfare is an attempt to reduce an opponent's military capability through open battle. It is a declared war between existing states in which nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons are not used or only see limited deployment in support of conventional military goals and maneuvers.

The opposite of conventional warfare, unconventional warfare, is an attempt to achieve military victory through acquiescence, capitulation, or clandestine support for one side of an existing conflict.

Nuclear warfare is a war in which nuclear weapons are the primary method of coercing the capitulation of the other side, as opposed to a supporting tactical or strategic role in a conventional conflict.

Civil war is a war where the forces in conflict belong to the same nation or political entity and are vying for control of or independence from that nation or political entity.

Asymmetric warfare is a conflict between two populations of drastically different levels of military capability or size. Asymmetric conflicts often result in guerrilla tactics being used to overcome the sometimes vast gaps in technology and force size.

Intentional air pollution in combat is one of a collection of techniques collectively called chemical warfare. Poison gas as a chemical weapon was principally used during World War I, and resulted in an estimated 91,198 deaths and 1,205,655 injuries. Various treaties have sought to ban its further use. Non-lethal chemical weapons, such as tear gas and pepper spray, are widely used, sometimes with deadly effect.

Military posture

Historian Victor Davis Hanson has claimed there exists a unique "Western Way of War", in an attempt to explain the military successes of Western Europe. It originated in Ancient Greece, where, in an effort to reduce the damage that warfare has on society, the city-states developed the concept of a decisive pitched battle between heavy infantry. This would be preceded by formal declarations of war and followed by peace negotiations. In this system constant low-level skirmishing and guerrilla warfare were phased out in favor of a single, decisive contest, which in the end cost both sides less in casualties and property damage. Although it was later perverted by Alexander the Great, this style of war initially allowed neighbors with limited resources to coexist and prosper.

He argues that Western-style armies are characterized by an emphasis on discipline and teamwork above individual bravado. Examples of Western victories over non-Western armies include the Battle of Marathon, the Battle of Gaugamela, the Siege of Tenochtitlan, the Battle of Plassey and the defense of Rorke's Drift.

Warfare environment

The environment in which a war is fought has a significant impact on the type of combat which takes place, and can include within its area different types of terrain. This in turn means that soldiers have to be trained to fight in a specific types of environments and terrains that generally reflects troops' mobility limitations or enablers. These include:

Warfare by doctrine

• Defensive warfare
• Offensive warfare
• Attrition warfare
• Maneuver warfare
• Guerilla warfare
• Fabian warfare
• Static warfare

Warfare by terrain

• Jungle warfare
• Desert warfare
• Mountain warfare
• Arctic warfare
• Naval warfare
• Urban warfare

Effects of war

Disability-adjusted life year for war per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004.

  no data

  less than 100

  100-200

  200-600

  600-1000

  1000-1400

  1400-1800

  1800-2200

  2200-2600

  2600-3000

  3000-8000

  8000-8800

  more than 8800

It is estimated that 378 000 people died due to war each year between 1985 and 1994.

The Apotheosis of War (1871) by Vasily Vereshchagin

On soldiers

Template:Quotation1

Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white American males aged 13 to 43 died in the American Civil War, including about 6% in the North and approximately 18% in the South. The war remains the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers. Of the 60 million European soldiers who were mobilized in World War I, 8 million were killed, 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million were seriously injured.

Why?, from The Disasters of War (Los desastres de la guerra), by Francisco Goya, 1812-15. A collection of depictions of the brutalities of the Napoleonic-Peninsular War.

During Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, more French soldiers died of typhus than were killed by the Russians. Felix Markham thinks that 450,000 crossed the Neman on 25 June 1812, of whom less than 40,000 recrossed in anything like a recognizable military formation. More soldiers were killed from 1500-1914 by typhus than from all military action during that time combined. In addition, if it were not for the modern medical advances there would be thousands of more dead from disease and infection. For instance, during the Seven Years' War, the Royal Navy reported that it conscripted 184,899 sailors, of whom 133,708 died of disease or were 'missing'.

Les Grandes Misères de la guerre depict the destruction unleashed on civilians during the Thirty Years' War.

On civilians

See also: Civilian casualties

Many wars have been accompanied by significant depopulations. During the Thirty Years' War in Europe, for example, the population of the German states was reduced by about 30%. The Swedish armies alone may have destroyed up to 2,000 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, one-third of all German towns.

Estimates for the total casualties of World War II vary, but most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, comprising around 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, about half of all World War II casualties. Since a high proportion of those killed were young men, the postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million fewer than post–1939 projections would have led one to expect. The largest number of civilian deaths in a single city was 1.2 million citizens dead during the 872-day Siege of Leningrad.

On the economy

See also: Military keynesianism

Once a war has ended, losing nations are sometimes required to pay war reparations to the victorious nations. In certain cases, land is ceded to the victorious nations. For example, the territory of Alsace-Lorraine has been traded between France and Germany on three different occasions.

Typically speaking, war becomes very intertwined with the economy and many wars are partially or entirely based on economic reasons such as the American Civil War. In some cases war has stimulated a country's economy (World War II is often credited with bringing America out of the Great Depression) but in many cases, such as the wars of Louis XIV, the Franco-Prussian War, and World War I, warfare serves only to damage the economy of the countries involved. For example, Russia's involvement in World War I took such a toll on the Russian economy that it almost collapsed and greatly contributed to the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

World War II

One of the starkest illustrations of the effect of war upon economies is the Second World War. The Great Depression of the 1930s ended as nations increased their production of war materials to serve the war effort. The financial cost of World War II is estimated at about a $1944 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, making it the most costly war in capital as well as lives.

By the end of the war, the European economy had collapsed with 70% of the industrial infrastructure destroyed. Property damage in the Soviet Union inflicted by the Axis invasion was estimated to a value of 679 billion rubles. The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, 40,000 miles of railroad, 4100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries.

Factors ending a war

Women and priests retrieve the dead bodies of Swabian soldiers just outside the city gates of Constance after the battle of Schwaderloh. (Luzerner Schilling)

The political and economic circumstances in the peace that follows war usually depends on the "facts on the ground". Where evenly matched adversaries decide that the conflict has resulted in a stalemate, they may cease hostilities to avoid further loss of life and property. They may decide to restore the antebellum territorial boundaries, redraw boundaries at the line of military control, or negotiate to keep or exchange captured territory. Negotiations between parties involved at the end of a war often result in a treaty, such as the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which ended the First World War.

A warring party that surrenders or capitulates may have little negotiating power, with the victorious side either imposing a settlement or dictating most of the terms of any treaty. A common result is that conquered territory is brought under the dominion of the stronger military power. An unconditional surrender is made in the face of overwhelming military force as an attempt to prevent further harm to life and property. For example, the Empire of Japan gave an unconditional surrender to the Allies of World War II after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (see Surrender of Japan), the preceding massive strategic bombardment of Japan and declaration of war and the immediate invasion of Manchuria by the Soviet Union. A settlement or surrender may also be obtained through deception or bluffing.

Many other wars, however, have ended in complete destruction of the opposing territory, such as the Battle of Carthage of the Third Punic War between the Phoenician city of Carthage and Ancient Rome in 149 BC. In 146 BC the Romans burned the city, enslaved its citizens, and razed the buildings.

Some wars or aggressive actions end when the military objective of the victorious side has been achieved. Others do not, especially in cases where the state structures do not exist, or have collapsed prior to the victory of the conqueror. In such cases, disorganised guerilla warfare may continue for a considerable period. In cases of complete surrender conquered territories may be brought under the permanent dominion of the victorious side. A raid for the purposes of looting may be completed with the successful capture of goods. In other cases an aggressor may decide to end hostilities to avoid continued losses and cease hostilities without obtaining the original objective, such as happened in the Iran–Iraq War.

Some hostilities, such as insurgency or civil war, may persist for long periods of time with only a low level of military activity. In some cases there is no negotiation of any official treaty, but fighting may trail off and eventually stop after the political demands of the belligerent groups have been reconciled, a political settlement has been negotiated, or combatants are gradually killed or decide the conflict is futile.

List of wars by death toll

These figures include deaths of civilians from diseases, famine, atrocities etc. as well as deaths of soldiers in battle.

This is an incomplete list of wars.

• 60,000,000–72,000,000 - World War II (1939–1945), (see World War II casualties)
• 36,000,000 - An Shi Rebellion (China, 755–763)
• 30,000,000–60,000,000 - Mongol Conquests (13th century) (see Mongol invasions and Tatar invasions)
• 25,000,000 - Qing dynasty conquest of Ming dynasty (1616–1662)
• 20,000,000 - World War I (1914–1918) (see World War I casualties)
• 20,000,000 - Taiping Rebellion (China, 1850–1864) (see Dungan revolt)
• 20,000,000 - Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)
• 10,000,000 - Warring States Era (China, 475 BC–221 BC)
• 8,000,000–12,000,000 - Dungan revolt (China, 1862 –1877)
• 7,000,000 - 20,000,000 Conquests of Tamerlane (1370–1405)
• 5,000,000–9,000,000 - Russian Civil War and Foreign Intervention (1917–1922)
• 5,000,000 - Conquests of Menelik II of Ethiopia (1882–1898)
• 3,800,000 - 5,400,000 - Second Congo War (1998–2003)
• 3,500,000–6,000,000 - Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) (see Napoleonic Wars casualties)
• 3,000,000–11,500,000 - Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)
• 3,000,000–7,000,000 - Yellow Turban Rebellion (China, 184–205)
• 2,500,000–3,500,000 - Korean War (1950–1953) (see Cold War)
• 2,300,000–3,800,000 - Vietnam War (entire war 1945–1975)
  • 300,000–1,300,000 - First Indochina War (1946–1954)
  • 100,000–300,000 - Vietnamese Civil War (1954–1965)
  • 1,750,000–2,100,000 - American phase (1965–1973)
  • 170,000 - Final phase (1973–1975)
  • 175,000–1,150,000 - Secret War (1953–1975)
• 2,000,000–4,000,000 - Huguenot Wars
• 2,000,000 - Shaka's conquests (1816–1828)
• 300,000–3,000,000 - Bangladesh Liberation War (1971)
• 2,000,000 - Russian-Circassian War (1763–1864) (see Caucasian War) and the exile of another 1.5 million Circassians from there homeland to the Ottoman Empire and another 500,000 Circassians Killed at sea during the Circassian exile from there homeland.
• 1,500,000–2,000,000 - Afghan Civil War (1979-)
  • 1,000,000–1,500,000 Soviet intervention (1979–1989)
• 1,300,000–6,100,000 - Chinese Civil War (1927–1949) note that this figure excludes World War II casualties
  • 300,000–3,100,000 before 1937
  • 1,000,000–3,000,000 after World War II
• 1,000,000–2,000,000 - Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)
• 1,000,000 - Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988)
• 1,000,000 - Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598)
• 1,000,000 - Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005)
• 1,000,000 - Panthay Rebellion (China,1856–1873)
• 1,000,000 - Nien Rebellion (China,1853–1868)
• 1,000,000 - Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970)
• 618,000 - 970,000 - American Civil War (including 350,000 from disease) (1861–1865)
• 900,000–1,000,000 - Mozambique Civil War (1975–1994)
• 868,000 - 1,400,000 - Seven Years' War (1756–1763)
• 800,000 - 1,000,000 - Rwandan Civil War (1990–1993)
• 800,000 - Congo Civil War (1996–1997)
• 600,000 to 1,300,000 - First Jewish-Roman War (see List of Roman wars)
• 580,000 - Bar Kokhba’s revolt (132–135CE)
• 570,000 - Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991)
• 550,000 - Somali Civil War (1988- )
• 500,000 - 1,000,000 - Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
• 500,000 - Angolan Civil War (1975–2002)
• 500,000 - Ugandan Civil War (1979–1986)
• 400,000–1,000,000 - War of the Triple Alliance in Paraguay (1864–1870)
• 400,000 - War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714)
• 371,000 - Continuation War (1941–1944)
• 350,000 - Great Northern War (1700–1721)
• 315,000 - 735,000 - Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651) English campaign ~40,000, Scottish 73,000, Irish 200,000-620,000

• 300,000 - First Burundi Civil War (1972)
• 300,000 - Darfur conflict (2003-)
• 250,000 - Bosnian War (1992–1995)
• 230.000 - 2,000,000 - Eighty Years' War (1568–1648)
• 270,000–300,000 - Crimean War (1854–1856)
• 234,000 Philippine-American War (1899–1912)
• 230,000–1,400,000 - Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991)
• 224,000 - Balkan Wars, includes both wars (1912–1913)
• 220,000 - Liberian Civil War (1989–1995 )
• 217,000 - 1,124,303 - War on Terror (9/11/2001–Present)
• 200,000 - 1,000,000 - Albigensian Crusade (1208–1259)
• 200,000–800,000 - Warlord era in China (1916–1928)
• 200,000 - 400,000 - Politionele acties (Indonesian war of independence) (1945–1949)
• 200,000 - 220,000 - The Conquest of Chile ((1536-1883)
• 200,000 - Second Punic War (BC218-BC204) (see List of Roman battles)
• 200,000 - Sierra Leone Civil War (1992–2001)
• 200,000 - Algerian Civil War (1991–2002 )
• 200,000 - Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996)
• 190,000 - Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871)
• 180,000 - 300,000 - La Violencia (1948–1960)
• 170,000 - Greek War of Independence (1821–1830)
• 150,000 - Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990)
• 150,000 - North Yemen Civil War (1962–1970)
• 150,000 - Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)
• 148,000-1,000,000 - Winter War (1939)
• 125,000 - Eritrean-Ethiopian War (1998–2000)
• 120,000 - 384,000 Great Turkish War (1683–1699) (see Ottoman-Habsburg wars)
• 120,000 - Third Servile War (BC73-BC71)
• 117,000 - 500,000 - Revolt in the Vendée (1793–1796)
• 103,359+ - 1,136,920+ - Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (2003–Present)
• 101,000 - 115,000 - Arab-Israeli conflict (1929- )
• 100,500 - Chaco War (1932–1935)
• 100,000 - 1,000,000 - War of the two brothers (1531–1532)
• 100,000 - 400,000 - Western New Guinea (1984 - ) (see Genocide in West Papua)
• 100,000 - 200,000 - Indonesian invasion of East Timor (1975–1978)
• 100,000 - Persian Gulf War (1990–1991)
• 100,000–1,000,000 - Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962)
• 100,000 - Thousand Days War (1899–1902)
• 100,000 - German Peasants' War (1524–1525)
• 80,000 - Third Punic War (BC149-BC146)
• 75,000 - 200,000? - Conquests of Alexander the Great (BC336-BC323)
• 75,000 - El Salvador Civil War (1980–1992)
• 75,000 - Second Boer War (1899–1902)
• 70,000 - Boudica's uprising (AD60-AD61)
• 69,000 - Internal conflict in Peru (1980- )
• 60,000 - Sri Lanka/Tamil conflict (1983–2009)
• 60,000 - Nicaraguan Rebellion (1972–91)
• 55,000 - War of the Pacific (1879–1884)
• 50,000 - 200,000 - First Chechen War (1994–1996)
• 50,000 - 100,000 - Tajikistan Civil War (1992–1997)
• 50,000 - Wars of the Roses (1455–1485) (see Wars involving England)
• 45,000 - Greek Civil War (1945–1949)
• 41,000–100,000 - Kashmiri insurgency (1989- )
• 36,000 - Finnish Civil War (1918)
• 35,000 - 40,000 - War of the Pacific (1879–1884)
• 35,000 - 45,000 - Siege of Malta (1565) (see Ottoman wars in Europe)
• 30,000 - Turkey/PKK conflict (1984- )
• 30,000 - Sino-Vietnamese War (1979)
• 30,000 - Rhodesian Bush War (1964–1979)
• ~28,000 - 1982 Lebanon War (1982)
• 25,000 - Second Chechen War (1999–2001)
• 25,000 - American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)
• 23,384 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 (December 1971)
• 23,000 - Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–1994)
• 20,000 - 49,600 U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan (2001–2002)
• 19,000+ - Mexican–American War (1846–1848)
• 14,000+ - Six-Day War (1967)
• 15,000–20,000 - Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995)
• 13,000+ - Nepalese Civil War (1996-2006)
• 11,053 - Malayan Emergency (1948–1960)
• 11,000 - Spanish-American War (1898)
• 10,000–20,000 - Libyian civil war (2011–present)
• 10,000 - Amadu's Jihad (1810–1818)
• 10,000 - Halabja poison gas attack (1988)
• 7,264–10,000 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 (August–September 1965)
• 7,000–24,000 - American War of 1812 (1812–1815)
• 2000-7,000 - Kosovo War (1998–1999)
• 5,000 - Turkish invasion of Cyprus (1974)
• 4,600 - Sino-Indian War (1962)
• 4,000 - Waziristan War (2004–2006)
• 4,000 - Irish Civil War (1922–23)
• 3,500 - The Troubles (1969–1998)
• 3,000 - Civil war in Côte d'Ivoire (2002–2007)
• 2,899 - New Zealand Land Wars (1845–1872)
• 2,604–7,000 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 (October 1947-December 1948)
• 2,000 - Football War (1969)
• 2,000 - Irish War of Independence (1919–21)
• 1,975–4,500+ - violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2000–2005)
• 1,724 - War of Lapland (1945)
• 1,500 - Romanian Revolution (December 1989)
• ~1,500 - 2006 Lebanon War
• 1,000 - Zapatista uprising in Chiapas (1994)
• 907 - Falklands War (1982)
• 62 - Slovenian Independence War (1991)

Gallery

• 
  Greek hoplite and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient kylix, 5th century BC
• 
  The Battle of Tewkesbury (1471) during the Wars of the Roses in England
• 
  A cattle raid during the Swabian War (Luzerner Schilling)
• 
  The Battle of Ravenna, in which France defeated the Spaniards on Easter Sunday in 1512
• 
  Swiss and Landsknecht pikemen fight at "push of pike" during the Italian Wars
• 
  Russo-Polish war, Battle of Orsha in 1514
• 
  The Spanish naval victory of the Battle of Lepanto, 1571, the last battle to be fought primarily between galleys
• 
  Battle of White Mountain, 1620, an early battle in the Thirty Years' War
• 
  The Four Days' Battle, 1 –4 June 1666, during the Second Anglo–Dutch War
• 
  The Battle of Poltava (1709), a decisive battle between Russian and Swedish troops
• 
  Depicting French Cuirassiers charging onto the British squares during the Battle of Waterloo
• 
  The 20th Foot at the Battle of Inkerman, Crimean War, 1854
• 
  American Civil War, Union captures Fort Fisher, 1865
• 
  USA's Army 89th Infantry Division cross the Rhine River in assault boats, 1945
• Marines from 2/8 firing on an enemy position in Garmsir, Afghanistan, July 2009
  Marines from 2/8 firing on an enemy position in Garmsir, Afghanistan, July 2009

See also

Possible causes

• Peak water
• Peak uranium
• Peak oil
• Religious war
• Racism

General reference

• Undeclared war
• Colonial war
• Religious war
• Breakaway states
• Casus belli
• Fault line war
• Islam and war
• Horses in warfare
• Sun Tzu, The Art of War
• War cycles
• Water conflicts
• Nuclear war
• War as metaphor

War-related lists

• List of ongoing conflicts
• List of wars and disasters by death toll
• List of wars
• List of battles
• List of war crimes
• List of orders of battle
• List of invasions
• List of terrorist incidents
• List of military commanders
• List of battles by death toll
• List of battles and other violent events by death toll

References

Bibliography

• Angelo Codevilla and Paul Seabury, War: Ends and Means (Potomac Books, Revised second edition by Angelo Codevilla, 2006) ISBN-X
• Angelo M. Codevilla, No Victory, No Peace (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005) ISBN
• Barzilai Gad, Wars, Internal Conflicts and Political Order: A Jewish Democracy in the Middle East (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996).
• Clausewitz, Carl Von (1976), On War (Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press)
• Fry, Douglas P., 2005, The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence, Oxford University Press.
• Gat, Azar 2006 War in Human Civilization, Oxford University Press.
• Gunnar Heinsohn, Söhne und Weltmacht: Terror im Aufstieg und Fall der Nationen ("Sons and Imperial Power: Terror and the Rise and Fall of Nations"), Orell Füssli (September 2003), ISBN, available online as free download (in German)
• Fabio Maniscalco, (2007). World Heritage and War - monographic series "Mediterraneum", vol. VI. Massa, Naples. ISBN.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Keegan, John, (1994) "A History Of Warfare", (Pimlico)
• Kelly, Raymond C., 2000, Warless Societies and the Origin of War, University of Michigan Press.
• Small, Melvin & Singer, David J. (1982). Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars,. Sage Publications. ISBN.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Otterbein, Keith, 2004, How War Began.
• Turchin, P. 2005. War and Peace and War: Life Cycles of Imperial Nations. New York, NY: Pi Press. ISBN
• Van Creveld, Martin The Art of War: War and Military Thought London: Cassell, Wellington House
• Fornari, Franco (1974). The Psychoanalysis of War. Tr. Alenka Pfeifer. Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor Press. ISBN: . Reprinted (1975) Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN
• Walzer, Michael (1977) Just and Unjust Wars (Basic Books)
• Keeley, Lawrence. War Before Civilization, Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Zimmerman, L. The Crow Creek Site Massacre: A Preliminary Report, US Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, 1981.
• Chagnon, N. The Yanomamo, Holt, Rinehart & Winston,1983.
• Pauketat, Timothy. North American Archaeology 2005. Blackwell Publishing.
• Wade, Nicholas. Before the Dawn, Penguin: New York 2006.
• Rafael Karsten, Blood revenge, war, and victory feasts among the Jibaro Indians of eastern Ecuador (1923).
• S. A. LeBlanc, Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest, University of Utah Press (1999).
• Duane M. Capulla, War Wolf, University of Pili (2008)

External links

• Correlates of War Project
• Correlates of War 2
• Antiwar.com
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
• Complex Emergency Database (CE-DAT) - A database on the human impact of conflicts and other complex emergencies.
• The Art of the War
• World War I primary source collection