TYPES OF WAR:
The use of armed forces in a conflict, especially between countries.
'war' is done at two levels.
1. conflicts between nation-states.
War, as is normally understood, is 'international'; where two or more nations fight on issues
of differing national interests.
These interests may focus on ideology, power, territory or simply perceptions of each other.
2. conflicts that occur within nations.
These conflicts may arise to oust those who hold the reigns of power;
they may arise to seek redressal of grievances, or
arise out of certain rights that have been denied to a section of populace of a particular nation.
In some cases, the internal uprisings may get support from outside powers, on some they may
not.
They may seek change within the nation-state in terms of change of government or regime;
they may seek more powers through decentralisation;
or they may eventually lead to a call for self-determination and the creation of a new nation-
state itself.
In either or all of these cases the problem is of internal security in a broad sense.
The labels, however, may vary from revolutionary wars, civil wars, guerrilla war, insurgency,
asymmetric warfare or terrorism.
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One must also make a difference between types of war as they have come to be classified and
the methodology used to fight them.
The term revolutionary war or civil war is classified as a type of war in view of the political
objectives that it carries.
Guerrilla war, terrorism, low intensity conflicts, proxy war are tools, means, or methods of
conducting such a struggle.
All of them are methods of warfare used in revolutionary war or civil war.
These methods, that is, guerrilla warfare, terrorism and low intensity conflicts, together may
be considered as insurgency in a broad sense of the term.
Insurgency is primarily a political phenomenon that uses violence as a 'legitimate' tool.
The tool of violence is manifest in forms like guerrilla war, terrorism, and low intensity
conflicts.
This system of warfare that is a product of such tools of violence is also called asymmetric
warfare.
It is asymmetric not only because of the differential in the force-capabilities of the two sides,
but also because the war is fought without any 'ground rules'.
little distinction is made between combatants and non-combatants
Proxy war as a tool or means of conducting a struggle has a slightly different connotation.
Proxy war has an underlying political motive to it;
it is generally associated with an indirect support given by any country for a political struggle
in another country or against another country.
CIVIL WAR
Civil war is a societal conflict that occurs within a country.
It may occur to either retain power and authority and therefore the legitimacy to govern
or it may occur to snatch the same from those holding on to it.
The means used to either retain power or snatch it are essentially extra legal in the sense that
violence is a key element of the struggle.
It is due to the use of violence that it is called a war.
It is 'civil' because it is located in the society and deals with the future of the society
concerned –
it is not a war that is international or one that involves two or more nation-states.
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Civil war may either be a spontaneous phenomenon or a deliberately planned one.
states where there is instability in the political systems spontaneous uprisings may result in
the sudden overthrow of governments.
One or the other groups may fill up the resultant power vacuum and fighting may rage
between them for several years.
on the other hand, A planned civil war is a systematic struggle that is deliberately structured.
Why does a planned civil war take place?
Two reasons have been given for such an occurrence.
These reasons are:
(a) there do not exist normal and effective channels for grievance redressal in an existing
system of governance.
(b) a slow but certain feeling takes shape amongst the people that the only way to get the
authorities to redress their grievances is to revolt since all peaceful means have proved futile.
LTTE in Sri Lanka
INSURGENCY
An insurgency is a rebellion by an irregular armed force that raises up against an established
authority, govemment, administration or occupation.
It is an organised movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through use
of subversion and armed conflict.
An insurgency is usually directed at changing the policies of the government, its personnel, or
the governmental structure, by non-legitimate means.
If war, as Clausewitz declared, is "diplomacy by other means," then insurgency is certainly
"politics by other means."
GUERRILLA WARFARE:
Guenilla war is comprised of combat operations conducted in enemy-held territory by
predominantly indigenous forces.
The operations use military or paramilitary methods and aim to reduce the combat
effectiveness, industrial capacity, and morale of the enemy.
Guerrilla operations are conducted by relatively small groups employing offensive tactics.
Guerrillas attack legitimate governmental and military targets.
Guerrilla tactics consist of
1. hit and run tactics,
2. avoiding pitched battles,
3. eluding the enemy pursuit by hiding in hills or forests or amongst the populace.
Guerrillas hold on to little or no territory;
attack when and where they consider the opposition weakest,
and withdraw when the enemy gains strength;
and derive the bulk of their support from the people of the area where they are operating -
though there may be some outside help.
Mao Tse Tung argued that guerrillas were like fish - in that they needed the water of popular
support to survive.
TERRORISM
Terrorism has been defined as a sub-state application of violence or the threat to use violence
with an intention to create panic in the society.
It differs from guerrilla warfare in the sense that terrorists do not hold on to territory like the
guerrillas do at some stage of their operations.
The word 'terrorism' was coined during France's Reign of Terror in 1793-94 following the
French Revolution
modern day terrorism is considered to begin with the attack on the Israeli Olympic team at
Berlin in 1972.
Since then there have been airplane hijackings and bombings;
assassinations like that of Rajiv Gandhi;
and ,perhaps, one of the most daring of episodes, the using of aircraft by the terrorists in the
September Eleven destruction of the New York World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Asymmetric Warfare
A war waged by non-state actors against the states.
using asymmetric methods to target the state’s vulnerabilities to achieve disproportionate
effect.
unconventional tools and tactics
terrorism, insurgency, war of information and ideas, war of disruptive threats,
attacks using bioweapons through the mail or cyber-attacks on the Internet
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Asymmetry means the absence of a common basis of comparison in respect to a quality, or a
capability.
Broadly, asymmetric warfare comprises of three main types
strategic asymmetry, tactical asymmetry and war by proxy
In the case of ‘strategic asymmetric warfare’,
belligerents begin by deploying forces of a similar type,
the outcome of a battle or campaign is determined by the numerical advantage enjoyed or
better command and control exercised by one side.
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In ‘tactical asymmetric warfare’,
one side enjoys a technological advantage that can outweigh even the numerical advantage of
the enemy.
Training and tactics as well as technology can prove decisive and allow a smaller force to
overcome much larger forces.
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Lastly, in case of ‘war by proxy’, asymmetric warfare is carried out (generally covertly) by
non-state actors.
who are connected to or are sympathetic to a particular nation’s (the state actor’s) interest.
That is, a non-state actor serves as a proxy of the state actor.
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Asymmetric warfare is not synonymous with terrorism.
Terrorism is a part of a tactic used by the weaker side in an asymmetric conflict.
LIMITED WAR:
The idea of limited war gained currency in the sense that created an alternative to massive
retaliation.
An exclusive definition of limited war was not possible because different writers used the
word in different ways.
There are four characteristics of limited war
1. Limited geography
it is sometimes used to describe wars that are limited geographically.
It means that LW is a term applied to wars fought in a confined and restricted areas.
Indo-pak war of 1971, veitnam war, Korean war
2. Limited objectives
The second way in which the term LW is used is a description of wars fought for limited
objectives.
The idea is that limited war should be distinguished from total wars according to the war aims
and objectives.
Ww2 was a total war because allied forces had unlimited objectives.....unconditional
surrender.
In contrast Vietnam war was a LW because US neither wanted to defeat Vietnam completely
nor to impose unconditional surrender on them.
It simply wanted to perpetuate the resistance of south Vietnam as an independent sovereign
state.... a limited obj
A war can be limited for one party and a total war for the other party.
3. LIMITED MEANS
The third usage of the term is to describe wars fought with limited means.
A war in which restraint is practiced by the belligerents with respect to quantity and quality
of the weaponry used
Korean war was a LW because both sides had the nuclear weapons but neither side used it.
The Indo-Pak war was not a limited war. They didn’t practice much restraint.
Evidences suggest that both sides used all the military power at its disposal to achieve its
objectives.
It is true that the violence was confined to conventional variety but this was not the result of
any restraint on the part of the belligerents.
It was simply a consequence of the fact that none of them had the capacity to escalate the war
to the nuclear level.
4. TARGET SELECTION:
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It should be clear from the above description that LW is difficult to define precisely because
the limits involved are matters of degree and partially because they are matters of
perspectives.
A war that is limited for one party may be a total war from the point of view of the state on
whose territory it is being waged.
For those who still insist upon a short general definition
Robert Osgood “ a LW is generally conceived to be a war fought for the ends far short of
complete subordination of one state’s will to another’s and by means involving far less than
the total military resources of the belligerents, leaving civilian lives and leading to a
bargained termination”.
total war:
A military conflict in which the belligerents are willing to make any sacrifice
in lives and other resources to obtain a complete victory.
