Conventional warfare

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Soviet soldiers and tanks during the 1943 Battle of Kursk, one of the largest battles of World War II
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Conventional warfare is a form of

nuclear weapons.[1][2]

The general purpose of conventional warfare is to weaken or destroy the opponent's military, which negates its ability to engage in conventional warfare. In forcing capitulation, however, one or both sides may eventually resort to unconventional warfare tactics.[1][2]

History

Formation of state

Further information: State formation

The state was first advocated by

Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the religious violence for purely political governance and outlook, signifying the birth of the modern state.[3][4]

Within the statist paradigm, only the state and its appointed representatives may bear arms and enter into war. In fact, war then became understood only as a conflict between sovereign states. Monarchs strengthened that idea and gave it the force of law. Any noble had been allowed to start a war, but European monarchs had to consolidate military power in response to the Napoleonic Wars.[5]

Clausewitzian paradigm

Prussia was one of the countries that tried to amass military power. Carl von Clausewitz, one of Prussia's officers, wrote On War, a work rooted solely in the world of the state. All other forms of intrastate conflict, such as rebellion, are not accounted for because in theoretical terms, he could not account for warfare before the state. However, near the end of his life, he grew increasingly aware of the importance of non-state military actors, as is revealed in his conceptions of "the people in arms", which he noted arose from the same social and political sources as traditional interstate warfare.[6]

Practices such as raiding or blood feuds were then labeled criminal activities and stripped of legitimacy. That war paradigm reflected the view of most of the modernized world in the early 21st century, as is verified by examination of the conventional armies of the time: large, high-maintenance, and technologically-advanced armies designed to compete against similarly-designed forces.[7][8]

Clausewitz also forwarded the issue of casus belli. Wars had been fought for social, religious, or even cultural reasons, and Clausewitz taught that war is merely "a continuation of politics by other means." It is a rational calculation in which states fight for their interests (whether they are economic, security-related, or otherwise) once normal discourse has broken down.[9]

Prevalence

Most modern wars have been conducted using conventional means. Confirmed use of

Syrian Civil War). Nuclear warfare has only occurred once: the American bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.[10][11][12]

Since World War II

The state and Clausewitzian principles peaked in the

Sino-Soviet conflict and between India and Pakistan in the 1999 Kargil War.[13][14]

However, conventional wars have been fought since 1945 between countries without nuclear weapons, such as the Iran–Iraq War and Eritrean–Ethiopian War, or between a nuclear state and a weaker non-nuclear state, like the Gulf War and Russo-Ukrainian War.[15][16][17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "How are conventional and unconventional warfare different?". HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  2. ^ a b Fabian, Sandor (2021-04-05). "IRREGULAR VERSUS CONVENTIONAL WARFARE: A DICHOTOMOUS MISCONCEPTION". Modern War. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  3. ^ "Qual era a melhor forma de governo para Platão, que fazia duras críticas à democracia". BBC. 2021-02-10. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  4. doi:10.1093/ehr/CVII.CCCCXXV.837
    .
  5. JSTOR 20024637
    .
  6. ^ Smith, M.L.R. "Guerrillas in the mist: reassessing strategy and low intensity warfare". Review of International Studies. Vol. 29, 19–37. 2003
  7. ^ Marsili, Marco (2023). "Shifting the Clausewitzian Paradigm from Battlefield to Political Arena". CESRAN.
  8. ^ Herberg-Rothe, Andreas (2023-04-27). "Clausewitz and Sun Tzu - Paradigms of Warfare in the 21st Century". The Peninsula.
  9. doi:10.1111/1758-5899.12722
    .
  10. PMID 12789407
    .
  11. ^ "The 10th Anniversary of Two Ghoutas Attack: The Largest Chemical Weapons Attack by the Syrian Regime on Syrian Citizens". SNHR. 2023-08-20.
  12. ^ "Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings". ICAN. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  13. ^ Yu, Miles (2022-12-13). "The 1969 Sino-Soviet Border Conflicts As A Key Turning Point Of The Cold War". Hoover. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  14. ^ "The Kargil War: a war that defied all odds" (PDF). Gallantry Awards. 2023.
  15. ^ "Are Ethiopia and Eritrea on the Path to War?". Foreign Policy. 2023-11-07. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  16. JSTOR 423868
    .
  17. ^ "Consequences of Conflict: The Russia-Ukraine War and the Gulf". Gulfid. Retrieved 2024-01-17.

External links

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