Definition of War

War
-An armed conflict between independent
political units by means of organized
military force, in the pursuit of a tribal or
national policy. (Malinowsky)
-A series of events that produce substantial
militarized arms conflict between organized
military forces independent nations. (Kugler
Oxford Companion)
A sustained intergroup violence in which state
military forces participate on at least one
side- on both side in the case of interstate
war, & generally on one side in the case of
civil war. (Goldstein)
A belligerent struggle between armed groups
within a state or between states with highly
incompatible goals, resulting in a sizeable
number of casualties. (Hnederson)
War is but the continuation of politics by
other means. (Carl Von Clausewitz)
-The state should employ sufficient violence
to compel our opponent to do our will.
-Clausewitz developed the “Trinity of War”
consisting of the following stages:
1.Political leaders decide on the goals, and
then control the general course of the war
during its prosecution.
2.The military skillfully fights the war,
choosing the specifics of strategy & tactics.
3. The populace gives material resources &
passion to the war effort.

John Keegan takes a cultural approach , with

the observation that war embraces much
more than politics, it is always an
expression of culture... In some societies
the culture itself.
War can be viewed as a redistribution of global
or regional political values & resources. War
is the ultimate arbiter of competing interests.
Jones conceptualizes war as distribution
mechanism making allocations of scarce
goods to competing parties.
-A party goes to war, after determining that it
possesses two essential elements: strength &
cost tolerance.
-The cost of war is measured in deaths,
deprivation, destruction of state assets. War
ends when there has been a total victory by
one side or when parties arrive at a
common picture of their relative power &
a common assessment of appropriate
settlements claims.
-According to Jones, wars end when mutual
rejection of claims is not worth the costs of
continued fighting to one side or both.
-According to Jones, the purpose of war is
not even render the opponent helpless &
defenseless. Instead, the immediate function
of war , then is to provide empirical
evidence to adjust divergent assessments of
relative power & permit the parties to
develop similar perceptions of reality on
which to base settlement”
When each combatant is determined to
convince the opponent of its version of the
power ration, then war begins.
Just war Theory
-Plato believe that regardless of purpose war
against non-Greeks was acceptable.
-Aristotle expressed the belief that wars were
just, when they were conducted for anyone
of three purposes; self-defense; the control
of others for their own benefit; & slavery of
people who deserved to be slaves.
-Christian religion begun to support just war
concept in the 4th century. The European
crusades to the Holy Land were justified as
just wars, & were even blessed by the
Roman Catholic popes.
-The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which
marked the beginning of the sovereign states
also marked the sovereign right to make war
no longer for moral causes.
-Both Catholic & Protestant clergies as well
as political leaders, have invoked the just
war theory to support various causes.
-In 1991, David Scheffer listed the following
principles of a just war:
1.The cost must be just
2.A lawful authority must decide to use
force.
3.The use of force must be a final resort.
4.The war must offer proportionality,
meaning the good achieved must outweigh
the damage done. The war must carry at least
a probability of success.
5.The methods of the war must minimize
damage to combatants.