WWX

War is a social political phenomenon associated with a fundamental change

of the character of relations among states, peoples, nations, when confronting
parties stop using nonviolent forms and methods of struggle and start to use
weapons and other violent mediums directly to reach political and economic
goals. Today, war is the sharpest form of direct political confrontation of en-
emy parties. The main instrument used to conduct war is armed forces and
other paramilitary units. Affecting all aspects of life and activities of a socie-
ty, war brings it into a special condition. The main specific content of war is
armed struggle. At the same time, in order to achieve the set political goals,
other methods and means of struggle are used in war as well: such as diplo-
matic, economic, and ideological.
War is closely related to politics and economics. Politics determines the
goals and the social nature of war; it also constitutes the key factor determin-
ing its intensity and methods of execution, the direction of concentrating of
main efforts, and the degree of mobilization of human and material resources.
Economics determines the material basis of war, the instruments used to con-
duct it, its scale, forms, and methods of armed struggle. The course and re-
sults of hostilities to a significant degree depend on the level of development
of economics. At the same time, war itself requires a fundamental reorganiza-
tion of economics, mobilization of all of its resources on the basis of the
needs of the armed forces.
In any war, two interrelated aspects operate; one social and political, the
other military and technical. The first aspect reflects the relation of the war to
basic trends of the historical development and content of this epoch. It deter-
mines the goals of the war depending on the interests of various social forces;
the second aspect determines the strategic nature of the war, the means and
methods of execution of hostilities, and the content and order of the solution
of the main strategic military problems.
The main and decisive form of struggle in war is armed struggle, which
involves organized use of armed forces and other paramilitary units in order
to achieve specific political, military, and economic purposes. It consists of
various combinations of offensive, defensive, support, and other activities,
and regrouping of troops (forces), and maneuvering the instruments of war.
Normally goals of wars include devastation of enemy states or their coa-
litions and their compulsion of acceptance of specific political conditions.
The final goal of a war includes achievement of its individual and intermedi-
ate goals: for example, to get confronting states out of war, to smash their
armed forces or military political groups, to occupy the territory of such states
or a part of it, or to deprive an enemy of allies. These goals are normally
achieved by consistently performing military political tasks and other military
strategic tasks originating from them in specific periods (stages) of the war, a
campaign, or individual major operations.
Modern wars are normally characterized by determination of goals, a
huge intensity of struggle, a destructive and ruinous character of hostilities,
large scale, fast and abrupt change of forms and methods, expansion of hostil-
480 Global Studies Encyclopedic Dictionary

ities to all geographic spheres, sharp struggle aimed at getting and keeping
the lead, and other distinguishing characteristics.
Traditional (classic) and non-traditional ways to conduct war can be de-
scribed. Traditional methods of war are characterized by consistency and a
continuity of typical techniques of hostilities. Non-traditional (non-typical)
methods of war are fundamentally different; they are conditioned by the pos-
sibilities related to the use of qualitatively new means of armed struggle.
In war, economic struggle is used; it is the aggregate of economic
measures and activities intended to undermine the military and economic po-
tential of the enemy and to reach economic preeminence. Economic struggle
is based on military economic mediums and measures. At the same time, in
such a struggle, military mediums are widely used, too, first, to deliver blows
against the enemy’s economic centers, the most important military and indus-
trial production facilities, and public administration bodies. The course of
economic struggle is much influenced by the destruction of processing cen-
ters for strategic raw materials and power centers and by the impairment of
internal transport systems and communications connecting the enemy with
other states, especially the disruption of the transport of oil products.
Diplomatic struggle in war uses various types of diplomatic activities to
undermine military and political positions of confronting states and to consol-
idate the positions of the state conducting such struggle, to disunite the ene-
my’s coalition by initiating conflicts inside it, to bring over allies and to im-
prove relations with them, to spread information, and to undertake other ac-
tivities that help achieve political and strategic aims of the war. In wartime,
diplomatic struggle is normally subordinate to armed struggle; the former is
aimed at creation of the most favorable conditions for the latter. At the same
time, one of its goals is to achieve the most advantageous conditions of peace.
One of new forms of struggle used in modern war is ecological struggle,
which consists of a package of measures and activities intended to create un-
favorable environmental conditions in the area occupied by the enemy and to
pose problems for its armed forces’ activities, its economics, and the life of its
people. In its extreme forms, ecological struggle involves creation of a cli-
mate in which the normal life of states is impossible. The struggle is conduct-
ed using both military and non-military mediums. It includes destruction of
nuclear power plants and centers of production of especially dangerous chem-
icals for a long-lasting contamination of large land areas, the atmosphere, and
water, intentional destruction of the ozone layer, formation of catastrophic
phenomena, floods, fires, and so on, and prevention and disruption of the
same kind of activities performed by the enemy. The effectiveness of such
struggle can significantly increase in the case of the creation of weapons
based on new physical principles; for example, geophysical weapons; and in
the case of the use of highly toxic substances and other long-lasting chemicals
able, to disturb natural exchange and to destroy vegetation over large areas.
In modern war, ideological struggle is conducted as well: ideological
and political, psychological, and informational influence on the armed forces’
personnel and the population of enemy states, aimed at undermining their
morale and weakening their will to win and stand up to the enemy. The most
important forms of ideological struggle are propaganda and counterpropagan-