{"id":2799,"date":"2021-03-17T11:14:46","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T05:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2024-12-27T15:34:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T10:04:14","slug":"war-and-warfare-part1-defining-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/2021\/03\/17\/war-and-warfare-part1-defining-war\/","title":{"rendered":"74: WAR AND WARFARE (Part1): Defining War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\">Starting a new series on War and Warfare, beginning with definition of war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800080;\"><u>Defining War<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><u>Dictionary Definitions<\/u>. Definitions of war in different dictionaries are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993300;\">A state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\">A state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #003366;\">A conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800000;\">A state or period of armed hostility or active military operations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #993366;\">A contest carried on by force of arms, as in a series of battles or campaigns.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800000;\">War is an intense armed conflict between\u00a0states,\u00a0governments, societies, or\u00a0paramilitary groups such as\u00a0mercenaries,\u00a0insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme\u00a0violence,\u00a0aggression, destruction, and mortality, using\u00a0regular\u00a0or\u00a0irregular\u00a0military forces.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">These definitions are understandable and accurate definitions in the general context however, they are too simplistic to convey the complexity and many facets of war. The war needs to be conceptualized and defined in a broader perspective. War has been defined over the years by the strategists. Each has added a new facet (highlighted in italics in the text) to the definition. Some of the definitions are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993300;\"><u>Von Clausewitz (1911)<\/u> defined war as \u201can act of violence intended to compel our opponents to fulfil our will\u201d, and \u201cWar is nothing but a <em>continuation of political intercourse, with a mixture of other means<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><u>Sorel (1912)<\/u> defined war as a \u201cpolitical act by means of which States, unable to adjust a dispute regarding their obligations, rights or interests, <em>resort to armed force to decide<\/em> which is the stronger and may therefore impose its will on the other\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000080;\"><u>Russell\u2019s (1916)<\/u> definition of war as \u201cconflict between two groups, each of which attempts to kill and maim as many as possible of the other group in order to achieve some object which it desires\u201d is even more general and uncritically inclusive. Russell states the <em>object for which men fight as \u201cgenerally power or wealth\u201d.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #008000;\"><u>Johnson (1935)<\/u> defines war as \u201carmed conflict between population groups conceived of as <em>organic unities<\/em>, such as races or tribes, states or lesser geographic units, religious or political parties, economic classes\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800080;\"><u>Kallen (1939)<\/u> gave a political definition of war: \u201cIf war may be defined as an armed contest between two or more sovereign institutions employing organized military forces in the pursuit of specific ends\u201d. The significant term in the definition is `<em>organized\u2019<\/em>. He further adds that this organization of the contending armed forces <em>extends back behind the battle lines and tends in modern wars to embrace all civilian activities, such as the industrial, productive, and commercial, and also the social interests and individual attitudes.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #003366;\"><u>Bernard (1944)<\/u> stated as follows: \u201cWar is organized continuous conflict of a transient character between or among collectivities of any sort capable of arming and organizing themselves for violent struggle carried on by armies in the field (or naval units on water) and supported by civil or incompletely militarized populations back of the battle areas constituted for the pursuit of some fairly well-defined public or quasipublic objective.\u201d This <em>objective is of course not always defined to the satisfaction of all concerned and it is liable to change according to circumstances during the continuance of the struggle.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800080;\"><u>Wallace (1968)<\/u> considers war to be \u201cthe sanctioned use of lethal weapons by members of one society against members of another. It is <em>carried out by trained persons working in teams that are directed by a separate policy-making group and supported in various ways by the non-combatant population\u201d.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993300;\"><u>Ashworth (1968):<\/u> \u201cMass or total war may be defined as a type of armed conflict between large nation-States in which populations and resources are rationally and extensively organized for conquest. <em>It is important to note that populations are mobilized both in terms of activities and psychological states:<\/em> the former implies comprehensive military and civilian conscription; the latter implies the systematic development of belligerent and hostile attitudes towards the enemy among all or most of the population.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #333399;\"><u>Deutsch and Senghaas (1971):<\/u> \u201cBy \u2018war\u2019 we mean actual <em>large-scale organized violence, prepared and maintained by the compulsion and legitimacy claims<\/em> of a State and its government, and directed against another State or quasi-State, i.e. a relatively comparable political organization\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #003300;\"><u>Barringer (1972)<\/u> considers war to be \u201cone possible mode of policy activity aimed at effectively and favourably resolving an ongoing conflict of interests. In this sense war is but <em>one of numerous conflict procedures, others being negotiation, conciliation, mediation, arbitration, and adjudication. It is merely a particular subset of the larger set of all conflict modes.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; color: #800080;\">All the definitions read together cover most of the facets of war. However, in the modern times the very nature of warfare are changing rapidly. More about these changes later.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; color: #ff0000;\">Coming up next : Types of War<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #800080;\">References:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/core.ac.uk\/download\/pdf\/12857871.pdf\">https:\/\/core.ac.uk\/download\/pdf\/12857871.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><a style=\"text-align: justify;\" href=\"https:\/\/smallwarsjournal.com\/jrnl\/art\/what-is-war-a-new-point-of-view\">2.https:\/\/smallwarsjournal.com\/jrnl\/art\/what-is-war-a-new-point-of-view<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;\">Brian Orend, \u201cWar\u201d, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta, accessed September 18, 2012.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><a style=\"text-align: justify;\" href=\"http:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/archives\/fall2008\/entries\/war\/\">http:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/archives\/fall2008\/entries\/war\/<\/a><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Carl von Clausewitz,\u00a0<em style=\"text-align: justify;\">On War<\/em><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">, ed. and trans. Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), 75<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Joseph S. Nye,\u00a0<em style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Future of Power<\/em><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">, (New York, NY: Public Affairs), 113.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Thomas L. Friedman,\u00a0<em style=\"text-align: justify;\">The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0Century<\/em><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">, 2005 (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux).<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Michael Howard,\u00a0<em style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Causes of War from the Causes of War and Other Essays<\/em><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983), 16.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">United States Government,\u00a0<em style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report<\/em><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">, January 2011, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 417-420.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Jack Sine, Defining the \u2018Precision weapon\u2019 in effects-based terms,\u00a0<em style=\"text-align: justify;\">Air &amp; Space Power Journal,<\/em><span style=\"text-align: justify;\"> Spring 2006, accessed March 3, 2011, http:\/\/www.freepatentsonline.com\/article\/Air-Space-Power-Journal\/154817984.html.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">General Norton A. Schwartz and Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, \u201cAir-Sea Battle: Promoting Stability in an Era of Uncertainty\u201d,\u00a0<em style=\"text-align: justify;\">The American Interest<\/em><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">, February 12, 2012, accessed September 12, 2012.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><u style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-american-interest.com\/article.cfm?piece=1212\">http:\/\/www.the-american-interest.com\/article.cfm?piece=1212<\/a><\/u><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Dr. Robert C. Nation, U.S. Army War College Seminar Lecture, September 6, 2012.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Gene Sharp, <em style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Role of Power in Nonviolent Struggle<\/em><span style=\"text-align: justify;\">, (Boston, MA: The Albert Einstein Institution, 1990), 9.<\/span>Sun Tzu,\u00a0<em>The Art of War<\/em>, trans. Samuel B. Griffith (New York: Oxf<\/span><a style=\"text-align: justify; font-size: 1rem;\" name=\"_ftn18\"><\/a><span style=\"text-align: justify; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">ord University Press, 1963).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting a new series on War and Warfare, beginning with definition of war. Defining War Dictionary Definitions. Definitions of war in different dictionaries are as follows: A state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country. A state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations. A &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/2021\/03\/17\/war-and-warfare-part1-defining-war\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;74: WAR AND WARFARE (Part1): Defining War&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,5,19,26,75,15,78,1,122],"tags":[6,47,38,79,52,123,60],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aircraft","category-airpower","category-article","category-best-military-quotes","category-iaf","category-leadership","category-military-capability","category-uncategorized","category-warfare","tag-airpower","tag-defence-services","tag-indian-air-force","tag-military-capability","tag-strategic-thinking","tag-war-wafare","tag-warfare"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8546,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/8546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}