1001GIR Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Stanford University Press, Conventional Warfare, Limited War
4 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
L5. War, Nuclear Weapons and Armed Conflict
The Nature of War
• War: what is it?
o A condition of armed conflict between two or more parties, traditionally states
o Classic account of war views it as a continuation of politics by other means
• This conception has been criticised
▪ Ignores moral implications of war
▪ Is outdated
• War has become less effective as a policy instrument for states
o Conventional warfare
• Inter-state armed conflict between regular, uniformed forces of states with
conventional weapons
▪ I.e. Non-nuclear weapons
• Formal, quasi-legal character
▪ E.g. Declarations, laws of war
o Civil war
• Armed conflict between organised groups within a state, usually fought to either
control the state, secede to form a new state, or unify a divided state
▪ Some definitions specify 1000+ deaths to be considered a 'war'
o Total war
• WW1 and WW2
▪ Full mobilisation of society for war effort, therefore civilians and industry
become targets
o Hegemonic wars
• Systemic or world wars
▪ To defend or re-shape the structure of the international system
• E.g. Status-quo and revisionist powers
o Limited war
• Limited or regional objectives
▪ Designed to achieve a specific, clearly-defined goal or to avoid escalation to
a larger war
o Guerrilla wars (insurgency and counterinsurgency)
• Irregular troops using tactics suited to terrain and local political circumstances,
emphasising mobility and surprise
• Can be part of a civil war or against a foreign occupation
• Tactics may shift between conventional fighting and terrorist attacks
o Intervention
• Armed interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state
▪ E.g. Humanitarian, state-building, regime change, etc.
The Changing Face of War
• With the end of the Cold War, some have theorised a move from 'old' (conventional) to 'new'
wars
o Sometimes called 'post-modern' or 'network' wars
• See: Kaldor, Mary. 1999. New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era.
Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.
o Conventional war between major power is largely seen as obsolescent
• Although, not entirely
▪ E.g. East Asia
• Many argue that the nature of war has changed since the Cold War
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
