War

For other uses, seeWar (disambiguation).

Painting ofPier Gerlofs DoniaandWijerd Jelckamafighting for the freedom of his people to help this country

Waris asituationor a period of fighting betweencountriesorgroupsof people.A war generally involves the use ofweapons,amilitary organizationandsoldiers.War is asituationin which anationenforcesitsrightsby using force.Not every armed conflict is a war. A fight betweenindividuals,betweengangs,drug cartels,etc. is not considered a war.However, most wars are called armed conflicts.International humanitarian lawis a set ofrulesthat tries to limit the effects of wars.International Humanitarian Law recognizes two kinds of wars. These are:

• "Internationalarmed conflicts "between two or morestates.
• "Non-international armed conflicts" as being between agovernmentand a group that is not a government or one that is between two such groups.

Karl von Clausewitzwrote in his classic book,On War,that "war is a mere continuation of policy with other means.”Clausewitz viewed war as apoliticalinstrument.His book about militaryphilosophyremains the mostinfluentialwork on thehistoryandstrategyof war.An earlier authority on war wasSun Tzu.In his bookThe Art of War,Sun Tzu saw war as anecessary evil.It was something people do.

Wars have been fought to controlnatural resources,forreligiousorculturalreasons and overpoliticalbalances of power.They have been fought over legitimacy (correctness) of particular laws. They have been fought to settleargumentsabout land or money, and many other issues. The reasons behind any war are often very complex.While a war can start for just about any reason, there is usually more than one cause.

War and the beginning of nations

From the earliest times, individual states orpolitical factionshave used war to gain sovereignty over regions.In one of the earliest civilizations in history,Mesopotamia,they were in a near constant state of war.Ancient Egyptduring itsEarly Dynastic Periodcame about by war whenLowerandUpper Egyptwere joined as one country, about 3100 BC.TheZhou DynastyruledAncient Chinacame to power in 1046 through war.Scipio Africanus(236-183 BCE) defeatedCarthageleadingAncient Rometo begin a conquest of the known world.Philip II of Macedon(382-336 BCE) united a group ofcity-statesto becomeAncient Greece.

Kinds of war

Sometimes, people don't see a difference between fighting between countries or people, and theformal declarationof astate of war.Those who do see this difference usually only use the word "war" for the fighting where the countries'governmentshave officially declared war on each other. Smaller armed conflicts are often calledriots,rebellions,coups,etc.

One country may send forces to another country for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is to help keep order or preventkillings of innocentsor othercrimes against humanity.It may be to protect a friendly government against an uprising. Here it may be called apolice actionorhumanitarian interventioninstead of a war. Some people think it's still a war.

Another kind of war existed from 1947 until 1991 called theCold War.This started whendiplomatic relationsbetween theUnited Statesand theSoviet Unionbroke down.Both countries hadnuclear weaponsand both stood ready to use them against the other.But there was no actual war between the two. It ended with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.The cold war was also called acontainmentwhere the United States tried to prevent the spread ofcommunismto other countries.During the cold war, the major powers did not fight themselves, but often backed third parties in what was called aproxy war.TheVietnam Waris often given as anexampleof a proxy war.But proxy wars happened long before the cold war and are still happening.

A war between peoples and groups in the same country is known as acivil war.It is generally agreed there are two things that make a war a civil war.It must be a struggle between groups in the same country orstateover political control or to force a major change in the government'spolicy.The secondcriterionis that more than 1000 people have to have been killed, with a minimum of 100 from each side.TheAmerican Civil Waris an example of a civil war. While the figures are mere estimates, the totalcasualtiesare thought to be about 750,000.

Laws of war

See the main article:Laws of war

Only in the last 150 years or so, have states agreed on international laws to limit warfare.This has been mainly forhumanitarian reasons.TheGeneva conventionsand theHague Conventionsare two examples of agreements that establish lawsgoverningwars.Collectively, these are usually called International humanitarian law (IHL).Because these areestablishedlaws, theyrestrictthoseengagedin armed conflicts to follow the IHL.Also, a country must not only respect the law but they also need to make sure other countries respect it as well.They cannotturn a blind eye(meaning pretend they do not see a thing) to countries who are not following IHC.The first of these was the Geneva Convention in 1864.It became international law with thesignaturesof 100 countries.

Statistical analysis

Thestatisticalanalysis of war was started byLewis Fry Richardsonfollowing World War I. More recent databases of wars have been assembled by the Correlates of War Project and Peter Brecke.

Related pages

• Peace,the word which is its opposite meaning - where there is peace, this means that there is no war.
• Anti-war movement
• Conflict
• List of ongoing armed conflicts
• List of wars
• List of battles

Other websites

• Correlates of War Project
• War and Civilization - Episode 1: First Blood (History Documentary); YouTube
• History Channel Documentary - Sun Tzu The Art of War:YouTube