Topic 15

Strategic Approach to International Relation: War

1) Introduction
2) The Changing Character Of War
i. War has been a central feature of human history. Since the end
of the cold war both the frequency and lethality of war has
shown a sharp decline.
ii. War between the great powers in particular has become much
more unlikely than in previous eras. Changes in the
international system may be changing the character of war.
iii. War in the contemporary era is not always easy to define. War is a
brutal form of politics.
iv. Contemporary warfare is being influenced by globalization.
v. War requires highly organized societies. War can be a
powerful catalyst for change.
vi. The nature of war remains constant, but its form reflects the
particular era and environment in which it occurs. Dramatic
technological advances mean that a revolution in military
affairs may be underway. Few states currently possess such
technology.
vii. The 'information age' is increasingly reflected in 'information
warfare'. Opponents with little or no access to RMA technology
are likely to use 'asymmetric warfare' to fight the war on their own
terms.
viii. Most recent conflicts have been characterized by the kind
of ferocity that was typical of 'modern' war, but overall
casualty levels have been much lower. The post-modern age
has seen warfare take numerous, varied forms.
3) Types of War
i. Introduction
i. Although all wars are violent, not all wars are the same. In
fact, there are many different types of wars, which can be
classified according to which people actually fight, the
intensity of the conflict, and the extent of combatantsí use
of violence, among other factors.
ii. Total war
 i. A total war is a war in which combatants use every resource
available to destroy the social fabric of the enemy.
ii. Total wars are highly destructive and are characterized
by mass civilian casualties because winning a total war
often requires combatants to break the peopleís will to
continue fighting.
iii. World Wars I and II were total wars, marked by the
complete destruction of the civilian economy and
society in many countries, including France, Germany,
the Soviet Union, Italy, Great Britain, and Japan.
iii. Limited war
i. A limited war is a war fought primarily between professional
armies to achieve specific political objectives without
causing widespread destruction.
ii. Although the total of civilian casualties may be high,
combatants do not seek to completely destroy the
enemyís social and economic frameworks.
iii. The Persian Gulf War of 1990ñ1991 was a limited war in
which the United States and its allies forcibly removed
Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
iv. Guerrilla war
i. A guerrilla war is a war in which one or both combatants
use small, lightly armed militia units rather than
professional, organized armies.
ii. Guerrilla fighters usually seek to topple their government,
often enjoying the support of the people.
iii. These wars are often very long but also tend to be
successful for the insurgents as evidenced by Mao
Zedongís victory over Chiang Kai-shek in China in the
1940s, the Vietcongís victory over the United States in
the Vietnam War, and the Mujahideenís victory over the
Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
v. Civil war
i. A civil war is a war fought within a single country between
or among different groups of citizens who want to control
the
 government and do not recognize another groupís right
to rule.
ii. Civil wars are almost always total wars because each side
feels compelled to destroy the enemyís political support
base.
iii. Regional rifts, such as the American Civil War between
the North and the South, characterize some civil wars,
whereas other civil wars have been fought among ethnic
rivals, religious rivals, and rival clans. Revolutions can
spark civil wars as well.
vi. Proxy war
i. A proxy war is a war fought by third parties rather than
by the enemy states themselves. Many of the militarized
conflicts during the Cold War, such as the Korean War
and the Vietnam
ii. War, can be interpreted as proxy wars between the
United States and the Soviet Union, neither of which
wanted to fight each other directly.
vii. Categorizing Wars
i. A war can often be a limited war, a guerrilla war, and a
civil war all at the same time.
ii. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 is a great
example. The United States sent trainers, money, and
weapons to Afghan rebels to fight against the invaders,
making it a low-intensity, limited conflict from the U.S.
point of view. The Afghan resistance mostly relied on
guerrilla tactics. And the war split Afghanistan, so it was
also a civil war.
viii. Intervention
i. Intervention is a fairly common way for a third-party
state to get involved in a civil war or a war between two
or more other states.
ii. A state intervenes when it sends troops, arms, money,
or goods to help another state that is already at war.
iii. During the Cold War, the term intervention was used
to describe one of the superpowers becoming
involved in a smaller countryís war (often a
developing country).
 iv. But states sometimes intervene in order to bring peace.
This type of intervention occurs when a country (or
countries) sends military forces into another state to act as
peacekeepers or to block other forces from attacking.
Sometimes these interventions are organized or
conducted by the United Nations or another international
governmental organization.
v. Example: The United States, along with other NATO
nations, sent troops into the former Yugoslavia on a number
of occasions to protect people from war. A successful
example of this peaceful intervention occurred during the
1999 U.S. bombing campaign in Kosovo, which helped stop
a slaughter of Kosovars by attacking Serbs.
ix. 'Virtual war', with few casualties, is an attractive option, but is
extremely difficult and probably impossible to achieve in
practice.
x. 'New wars', following state collapse, are often conflicts over
identity as much as territory. The new wars in fact follow a
pattern of warfare that has been typical since the late 1950s. Such
conflicts typically occur in countries where development is
lacking and there is significant economic insecurity
xi. Asymmetric War
i. Asymmetric warfare can describe a conflict in which
the resources of two belligerents differ in essence and
in the struggle, interact and attempt to exploit each
other's characteristic weaknesses.
ii. Such struggles often involve strategies and tactics of
unconventional warfare, the weaker combatants attempting
to use strategy to offset deficiencies in quantity or quality.
Such strategies may not necessarily be militarized.
iii. The 9/11 terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan
are among the best-known recent examples of
asymmetric warfare: conflicts between nations or
groups that have disparate military capabilities and
strategies.
4) Causation of War
i. opposing interests and capabilities (specific
sociocultural differences and similarities between the
parties),
 ii. contact and salience
(awareness), iii.significant change
in the balance of powers,
iv. individual perceptions and expectations,
v. a disrupted structure of expectations,
vi. a will-to-conflict.
vii. It is aggravated by; sociocultural
dissimilarity, cognitive imbalance, status
difference, coercive state power.
viii. It is inhibited by; sociocultural similarity,
decentralized or weak, coercive state power.
ix. It is triggered by: perception of opportunity,
threat, or injustice, surprise.
Conclusion