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The Nature of War and Warfare

General

According to international law, war is “a state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties”[1]. Likewise, the term “warfare” is understood as “the use of force on the part of two or more nations or other organized groups for the purpose of deciding disputes that cannot be settled by diplomatic means”.

Warfare takes a variety of forms besides organized military confrontations – insurrections, revolutions, coups d’etat, guerrilla warfare, and terrorism.

When armed conflicts assume global proportions, they are known as world wars[2]. War between different parts or factions of the same nation is called civil war. A state of war can also exist without actual recourse to arms, such as the cold war.

A rebellion is not legally considered a war because the rebels must have the power to maintain law and order within the regions occupied by them and carry on war on a large scale by land, sea, or air.

International hostilities sometimes continue for long periods of time without being acknowledged as wars. For instance, The Korean War was regarded by the U.S. government as a police action. Conflicts or wars in which major powers purposely refrain from employing all their armed strength are often known as limited wars. Limited wars are recognized as a preferable alternative to nuclear wars.

International wars are generally terminated by a treaty, and civil wars by a peace proclamation.

The military institutions of a nation and the way it wages war are determined principally by its form of government, social structure, economic strength, and geographical position. For example, before World War II, the United States, taking advantage of its isolated geographical positions, maintained only a small standing army and depended on its navy and that of Britain.

Causes of Warfare

Warfare is employed to bring about or to resist political, social, or economic changes. History provides evidence of such tangible, and frequently interrelated, causes as religious conflict, protection of dynastic succession, or acquisition of territory. War for acquisition of land is directly related to the necessity of providing food for a nation or a group. Wars are also often linked to a desire for security, on the theory that a so-called first strike prevents an enemy from carrying out threats. According to some much disputed theories, such as those of the Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz, innate aggressive drives are responsible for human beings' frequent recourse to warfare.

Planning and Organization of Warfare

The overall plan devised to defeat an enemy is called strategy. The actual techniques carried out against the enemy are tactics, which consist of the procedures for winning on the battlefield, in naval battle, and in aerial combat. Once the overall strategic plan has been approved, planning cycles at lower echelons are implemented. The execution of plans, making possible the attainment of military objectives, involves functions carried out by a field commander whose tactical judgment and leadership are critical. Logistics, which involves transporting troops and furnishing continuous supplies in support of military operations, is essential to the success of the mission. Mobilizing industry, utilities, and medical service, as well as scientific research facilities and propaganda sources, are also part of the logistics planning process.

Types of Operation

The changes in types of operation – from ancient hand-to-hand combat to modern deployment of nuclear missiles – are linked to changes in technology. The introduction of gunpowder, and the invention of the steam engine, the telegraph, and the internal-combustion engine, completely changed land and sea warfare and added a third type – air warfare.

Offensive actions involve operations to defeat the enemy’s armed forces and destroy his will to fight. Defensive warfare entails the employment of all means and methods to prevent, resist, or destroy an enemy attack. Its purpose may be twofold: to gain time pending the development of more favorable conditions to take the offensive, or to concentrate forces in one area for decisive offense elsewhere. 

Psychological warfare aims at destroying an enemy’s will to resist. It includes the use of propaganda (printed, broadcast, or in the form of films) and aerial bombardment employed for its demoralizing effect on the enemy civilian population as well as on combatant forces.

The development of powerful nuclear explosive devices capable of destroying targets ranging in size from large cities to entire battlefields has changed the nature of modern warfare. The possible employment of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield has made it extremely hazardous to mass conventional air, sea, or land forces in any one locale. For example, aircraft carriers, large formations of heavy bombers, or concentrations of armored units could all be destroyed by a single nuclear explosion. Even more vulnerable are civilian populations and economic centers that could be devastated by nuclear warheads launched from a distance of several thousand kilometers via intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). As a result, total warfare between nations equipped with nuclear weapons has become unacceptable as a sane option.