War

Overview

"War" is defined as a long standing armed conflict between two or more groups over resources, land, cultural differences, or other matters of contention. It is usually instigated following a public declaration of war, but undeclared wars are quite common in the form of surprise attacks. War is considered different from murder or genocide, because of the organization of the participants. The interesting thing, however, is that warfare is one of the few global/universal concepts -- almost every culture in recorded history has had some concept of warfare, and has risen or fallen due to war.

Conduction Of War

Primary Forms of Warfare

• Conventional Warfare - The attempt to reduce the opponent's military ability, resources, and personnel to the point where they may no longer effectively continue. The use of chemical, biological, or nuclear implements is often avoided to reduce damage to non related property, objectives, or civilians. Conventional warfare is almost always preceded by a declaration of war.
• Unconventional Warfare - The opposite of conventional warfare, unconventional warfare seeks to secure objectives (surrender, treaties, for example) through means considered abnormal. This includes guerrilla warfare, cyber warfare, airborne conflicts, sub-aquatic warfare, nuclear, chemical, biological warfare, specific targeting of civilians, hit and run operations, assassination, intelligence gathering, sabotage, the spread of propaganda, and other unorthodox means.

Cessation of Hostilities

Wars usually end in one of three ways. Two opposing but equal powers may declare a stalemate and choose to end a war to avoid utterly pointless loss of life or property, followed by a peace negotiation in which the two sides agree on what to do with the conflicted territory. These negotiations often end in a treaty or peace agreement. The second possibility is the ultimately weaker side declaring some form of surrender: this will usually also end in some sort of peace negotiation, with the surrendering party holding slightly less negotiating power. The third possibility is the simple, utter, complete, and total destruction of one side involved in the war.