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The following table provides an overview of how war is typically defined
by the field of political science:
"War is an armed mass conflict with the following characteristics:
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Two or more armed forces are involved in the
conflict, whereby a regular army or government troops make up at least
one of the forces. |
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The approach used by both forces is centrally controlled and
organized, even when this means nothing more than organized armed defense
or planned attacks (guerrilla operation, partisan warfare). |
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The armed conflict does not consist of spontaneous, sporadic clashes. Both parties have a systematic approach." |
[Taken from: Istvan Kende, Kriege nach 1945 (Wars since 1945). Eine empirische Untersuchung, Frankfurt/Main 1982]
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The very way in which several conditions have been listed in this
definition, which have to be given before it's justified to talk about war, serves in demonstrating just how difficult it is to segregate war from other armed
conflict. If we take this definition of war, the overall picture in terms of wars since the Second World War is very sobering
indeed:
Here are some numbers on wars since 1945:
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The world has been without war for just 26 days since 1945. |
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The occurrence of war is continually increasing: 1945: 3 wars, 1955: 15 wars, 1975: 21 wars, 1985: 33 wars, 1995: 43 wars. |
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The duration of wars is increasing: 41 wars continued for more than 10 years, 26 wars for more than 5 years. |
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The number of killings and the degree of destruction is
increasing. In addition to this, civilians are increasingly becoming the victims of war: The proportion of civilian war victims rose from around 50% up until the end of the 70s to 75% in the 80s to almost 90% in the 90s. Altogether wars have accounted for the death of between 25 and 35
million people since 1945. |
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124 wars
were ended between 1945 and 1992. Of these aggressors achieved 28 victories and 36 defeats, 7 wars were
stopped, 16 wars were ended after the parties reached an agreement without the help of a third party and 37 were ended with the help of third
party. |
[Taken from: Istvan Kende, Kriege nach 1945 (Wars since 1945). Eine empirische Untersuchung, Frankfurt/Main 1982]
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These figures also provide a good indication that the "traditional warfare" era, that
is, war between nation states is coming to an end. Not least because of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on the 11th of September 2001, discussions have been raging about the definition of war and about adjusting international law to take account of this new
situation. "New wars" is a term often used in this connection:
"The
'new' wars in which warlords and terror groups operate are, in actual
fact, not so new. 'Privatized' warlike violence once existed before the nation state era on a large
scale. (...) Of all the wars that have taken place worldwide since 1945, only a third were between states in the traditional sense. The remaining two thirds of wars were between different groups within a society and transnational wars in which local
militias, internationally recruited guerrilla groups, global terror networks and regional warlords raged war against each
other. Indeed, it is no longer the case that nation states have a legitimate and effective monopoly on war, as was the case in Europe from the mid 17th to the middle of the 20th
century. War has shaken off its nation-bound chains, which were put on it as part of the political rules established in the Peace of
Westphalia; war has become independent of states and, indeed, privatized. Formally commanding a monopoly position on war, the state now has to compete with
para-national and private players, with mercenaries and networked-linked terror
groups, which wage war against each other and against states."
[Taken from: Herfried Münkler, Das Ende des "klassischen" Krieges (The end of traditional war). Warlords, Terrornetzwerke und die Zukunft kriegerischer Gewalt (warlords, terror networks and the future of warlike violence); in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung dated 14.09.2002, p. 73]
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Further ideas on how to deal with the term war:
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Human ethology: What do those studying human
behavior have to say about war?
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The causes of war: Research into the cause of war is one of the central areas of work for those studying peace and conflict
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There can be hardly any peace that is so unjust as to prefer the most just of wars – Erasmus von Rotterdam |
[Author: Ragnar Müller]
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