War Period

A War Period is an armed conflict between communities.

• Context:
  • It can (typically) have a War End State.
  • It can (typically) involve Violence, Social Disruption and Economic Destruction.
  • It can (typically) involve a Declaration of War.
  • It can (often) be characterized by Battlefronts, Sieges, and specific Campaigns that define the phases of conflict.
  • It can (often) involve War Crimes, including genocide, targeting civilians, and violations of International Law.
  • ...
  • It can range from an Inter-Nation War (e.g., World War II) to being an Intra-Nation War (e.g., Civil War).
  • It can range from being a Short War (e.g., Six-Day War) to a Median-Duration War (e.g., Korean War) to a Long War (e.g., Afghanistan War or Perpetual War).
  • It can range from being a War of Aggression, a Civil War, a War of Independence, to a Proxy War.
  • ...
  • It can include a variety of combat strategies, such as Guerrilla Warfare, Total War, and Asymmetric Warfare.
  • It can involve Alliances where multiple nations or entities collaborate for mutual defense or aggression.
  • It can be fought over political control, territorial expansion, ideological differences, resource acquisition, or as a response to aggression.
  • It can result in a Power Shift, where political, territorial, or social structures change dramatically post-conflict.
  • It can lead to a Post-War Period where reconstruction, reconciliation, and political restructuring occur.
  • It can be fought with conventional armies, or involve Irregular Forces, including Mercenaries, Militias, and Insurgents.
  • It can result in extensive casualties, including Civilian Casualties, Prisoners of War, and Displaced Populations.
  • It can escalate into a Regional Conflict or Global War if neighboring states are drawn into the hostilities.
  • It can end with a Ceasefire Agreement, Surrender, or Peace Treaty, which may or may not resolve underlying tensions.
  • It can have long-term effects, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among combatants and civilians, as well as Economic Rehabilitation needs.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC) — An early recorded battle in ancient Egypt between Pharaoh Thutmose III and a coalition of Canaanite kings.
  • Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) — A protracted conflict between Athens and Sparta that reshaped the Greek world.
  • Punic Wars (264-146 BC) — A series of three wars between Rome and Carthage, resulting in Roman dominance over the Mediterranean.
  • Gallic Wars (58-50 BC) — Julius Caesar’s campaigns to subjugate the tribes of Gaul, marking a significant expansion of Roman power.
  • Battle of Actium (31 BC) — A decisive naval engagement between Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, leading to the rise of the Roman Empire.
  • The Crusades (1095-1291) — A series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church to reclaim the Holy Land from Islamic rule.
  • Mongol Conquests (1206-1368) — A series of invasions and campaigns led by the Mongol Empire that created one of the largest empires in history.
  • Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) — A series of conflicts between England and France, marked by the rise of national identities.
  • War of the Roses (1455-1487) — A civil war in England between the houses of Lancaster and York, ending in the establishment of the Tudor dynasty.
  • Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) — A series of major global conflicts led by Napoleon Bonaparte, affecting Europe and beyond.
  • American Civil War (1861-1865) — A defining conflict within the United States over slavery and state sovereignty.
  • World War I (1914-1918), known as "The Great War," involving major powers across Europe and leading to significant geopolitical changes.
  • World War II (1939-1945), a global conflict that resulted in the restructuring of international power dynamics.
  • Korean War (1950-1953), a proxy war during the Cold War era that ended with an armistice.
  • American/Vietnam War (1955-1975), an example of asymmetric warfare involving the US and the Viet Cong.
  • Bangladesh Liberation War (1971), which led to the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan.
  • Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, that ended the atrocities in the former East Pakistan.
  • Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia (1977-1991), which overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime.
  • Iraq War II (2003-2011), characterized by the US-led invasion and the subsequent insurgency.
  • Russo-Ukrainian War (2014-) involving territorial disputes and political tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Peace Period, which requires active diplomacy and conflict resolution mechanisms to maintain stability.
  • War Game, which simulates combat without actual casualties, often used for training or strategy development.
  • Cold War, which involved political and ideological conflict without direct large-scale warfare between the superpowers.
  • Sports Rivalry, which can be intense but lacks violent outcomes.
• See: Peace Treaty, Arms Treaty, Just War, Right of Self-Defence, Perpetual War, Credible Threat of Force, Great Power Policy, Soft Power, War Crimes, Ceasefire Agreement, Proxy War, Asymmetric Warfare, Irregular Forces, Battlefront, Economic Rehabilitation, PTSD, Post-War Reconstruction, Surrender, Insurgency.

---

---

References

2022

• (Wikipedia, 2022) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/war Retrieved:2022-7-24.
  • War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, aggression, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties. While some war studies scholars consider war a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue it is a result of specific socio-cultural, economic or ecological circumstances.

2013

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War
  • War is an organized and often prolonged conflict that is carried out by states or non-state actors. It is generally characterised by extreme violence, social disruption, and economic destruction. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence or intervention. The set of techniques used by a group to carry out war is known as warfare. An absence of war is usually called peace.

    In 2003, Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. In the 1832 treatise On War, Prussian military general and theoretician Carl von Clausewitz defined war as follows: "War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will."

    While some scholars see warfare as an inescapable and integral aspect of human nature, others argue that it is only inevitable under certain socio-cultural or ecological circumstances. Some scholars argue that the practice of war is not linked to any single type of political organization or society. Rather, as discussed by John Keegan in his History of Warfare, war is a universal phenomenon whose form and scope is defined by the society that wages it. Another argument suggests that since there are human societies in which warfare does not exist, humans may not be naturally disposed for warfare, which emerges under particular circumstances.

    The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is the Second World War, with 60–85 million deaths. Proportionally speaking, the most destructive war in modern history has been claimed to be the War of the Triple Alliance, which took the lives of over 60% of Paraguay's population.

---