The document discusses different types of war including total war, civil war, limited war, guerrilla war, and how terrain can impact warfare. Total war involves entire populations mobilized for war and seeking unconditional surrender. Civil wars are fought within nations between competing factions. Limited wars since WWII have involved limited objectives to avoid escalation. Guerrilla warfare relies on blending with local populations for concealment. Terrain like mountains favors infantry and guerrilla tactics while open plains are better for mechanized forces.

1. Causes, Practices, and effects of
War

2. • “Warfare is the greatest affair of state, the
basis of life and death, the way (Tao) to survival
or extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and
analyzed.”
•-The Art of War Sun-Tzu – 5th
century b.c.

3. What is War?
• “ War therefore is an act of violence intended to
compel our opponents to fulfill our will.”
• On War - Carl Von Clausewitz – 1780 to 1831

4. He makes an attempt to understand the rapidly changing
nature of war in Napoleonic Europe, as the old military order
was destroyed and first national armies were raised. He
tries to explain how the war is now fought for ‘ideas’ or a
cause rather than ‘spoils’. He was the first military strategist
to explain this fundamental change, and his book became
the standard text of warfare in the 19th and early 20th
century. The ideological nature of war that Clausewitz first
outlined was demonstrated in its extreme form on the
eastern front in the Second World War, where history’s
bloodiest battles were fought between the extreme right-
wing (Nazis) and the extreme left-wing (Soviets) ideologies.
It was a war of total destruction and, as Clausewitz had
predicted, one with extreme costs and casualties and
finishing only when one of the belligerents was completely
destroyed.

6. Why do we fight?
• The political objective
– “War is a mere continuation of policy by other
means.” -– Von Clausewitz
• Economic motive – We want what our neighbors
have –
– Class warfare - Marxist point of view
– Includes wars of liberation
• Honor, fear and interest – Thucydides
– Kagan explains
• Human nature - Aristotle

7. Why should we study war
• Prevention – idealistic- human nature can
be changed
• So we can win – realistic- we will always
fight so lets make sure we come out on top
• We can minimize the inevitable by reducing
the likelihood of war and its impact
neo-realist or soft realist.

8. Types of War
• I. Total War
– Examples
• World War I 1914 to 1918
• World War II 1939 to 1945
– Characteristics
• Entire population mobilized for war effort
• Complete defeat of enemy- unconditional surrender
Retaken from
On the Road to Total War: The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 1861-1871 (Publications
of the German Historical Institute). German Historical Institute. August 22, 2002. p. 296. ISBN 0-5215-2-119X.

9. Certain actions regardless of legitimacy or illegitimacy
can characterize total war, such as:
•giving no quarter (i.e., take no prisoners), as with
Hitler's Commando Order during World War II
•strategic bombing, as with the strategic bombing of
enemy targets during World War I and World War II
•blockade, as with the Allied blockade of Germany
during World War I
•scorched earth policy, as with Union General William
T. Sherman's March to the Sea during the American
Civil War

10. • suppressing resistance movement, destroying entire
human settlement localities, and/or deliberately killing
or executing civilian inhabitants in collective
punishment and reprisal for any suspected or actual
resistance activity, as with The Rape of Belgium
during World War I
• commerce raiding or unrestricted submarine warfare,
as with the German U-Boat campaign during World
War I against enemy and neutral merchant ships
• the use of civilians and prisoners of war as forced labor
for military operations, as with Japan and Germany's
massive use of forced laborers of other nations during
World War II (see Slavery in Japan and Forced labor
under German rule during World War II)

11. Napoleon's retreat from Russia in
1812. Napoleon's Grande Armée
had lost about half a million men.

12. The Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864)
was one of the deadliest wars in
history, and the first total war in
modern China. About 20 million
people died, many due to disease
and famine

15. • Civil War
– Characteristics
• 1. Fought between forces of one nation
• 2. Two sides vying for power
• 3. Sometimes involves separatists- independence
movement
• 4. Foreign support for one side or both is common
– Examples
• 1. Spanish Civil War 1935 – 1938
• 2. Chinese Civil War 1946 – 1949
• 3. Mexican Revolution 1911-1920
Berdal, Mats, and David M. Malone. Greed and Grievance:
Economic Agendas in Civil Wars. Lynne Rienner, 2000.
ISBN 1555878687

16. International DefinitionInternational Definition
The Final Record of the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of
1949 (Volume II-B, 121) does not specifically define the term
"civil war." It does, however, describe the criteria that separate
any act committed by force of arms (anarchy, terrorism, or plain
banditry) from those qualifying as "armed conflict not of an
international character," which includes civil wars. Among
those conditions listed are these four basic requirements.
The party in revolt must be in possession of a part of the
national territory.
The insurgent civil authority must exercise de facto authority
over the population within the determinate portion of the
national territory.
The insurgents must have some amount of recognition as a
belligerent.
The legal government is “obliged to have recourse to the
regular military forces against insurgents organized as
military.”

17. The American Civil War was fought in 1861–
1865 between the "Union," a group of 24
Northern states, and the "Confederacy”
(Confederate States of America), a collection
of 11 Southern states. The Confederacy
declared their independence from the United
States in 1860–1861. The most commonly
cited cause for the war is the issue of slavery,
but the conflict was in fact more nuanced.

18. The Salvadoran Civil War was fought between
1980 and 1992 and involved the government of
El Salvador against a coalition of leftist and
communist forces known as the Farabundo Martí
National Liberation Front (FMLN). This
coalition challenged the ruling military regime
because of poor economic conditions following
El Salvador's war with Honduras in 1969. The
government also organized death squads
targeting members of the opposition.

19. The Korean Civil War was fought between 1950 and
1953. The war was the result of the division of the
country for use as a buffer zone in the Cold War. The
northern half of the peninsula was supported by the
Soviet Union, the southern half by the United States.
Leaders of both halves wanted to reunite the peninsula
under their regime, and in 1950 the North Koreans
began attacking in order to do so. The United Nations
condemned the attack, and with American aid, the
government of South Korea was reestablished and the
communist forces driven back to the dividing line of
the peninsula, which remains the 38th parallel.

20. • Limited War
– Characteristics
• 1. Post WWII – Nuclear threat
• 2. Limited objectives – avoid escalation
• 3. Use of Proxy forces – no national mobilization
– Examples
Korean War 1950 to 1953
Vietnam War 1964 to 1973

21. A limited war is a conflict in which the
belligerents participating in the war do not
expend all of each of the participants'
available resources at their disposal, whether
human, industrial, agricultural, military,
natural, technological, or otherwise in a
specific conflict

22. Many American Indian groups practiced limited warfare
or similar behaviors. Eastern groups at the time of
contact with Europeans often wouldn't kill all enemies;
they would capture many for adoption to replenish their
own populations. This is related to mourning wars. The
Aztec did flower wars to keep subordinate nations
symbolically defeated as well as capture sacrificial
victims (who were symbolically adopted). These wars
left non-combatants and materials without risk of
physical harm. It begun in 1622

23. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Lord Palmerston decided to fight a limited
war against Russia, since waging a total
war would have required massive reform
of the armed forces. Ended in 1855

24. The Vietnam War also known as the Second
Indochina War, and also known in Vietnam
as Resistance War Against America or
simply the American War, was a Cold War-
era proxy warthat occurred in Vietnam,
Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955
to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This
war followed the First Indochina War
(1946–54) and was fought between North
Vietnam—supported by the Soviet Union,
China and other communist allies

25. • I. Guerrilla War
• A. Characteristics
– 1. Strong vs. Weak/Oppressor vs. Oppressed/Regular vs.
irregular
– 2. Associated with independence movements and civil
wars
– 3. Can be used in all sorts other wars.
– 4. Depends on indigenous population for concealment
• B. Examples
– 1. Vietnam war 1960 to 1968
– 2. Partisans in Europe during WWII
•

26. The Cuban Revolution (1953–1959) or
the revolution on Cuba was an armed
revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th
of July Movement and its allies against
the government of Cuban President
Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began
in July 1953,and finally ousted Batista
on 1 January 1959, replacing his
government with a revolutionary
socialist state.

27. The Iraqi Kurdish Civil War was
a military conflict that took place
between rival Kurdish factions in
Iraqi Kurdistan during the mid-
1990s, most notably between the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and
the Kurdistan Democratic Party

28. Terrain
• Open Plains – Favors Mechanized Infantry,
Armor, Airpower - Hard to defend, poor for
guerilla Warfare
• Desert – Same as open Plains but logistics critical
• Mountain – Favors Infantry, Airpower, - Easy to
defend – poor for Mechanized, and Armor
• Forest/Jungle – Favors Infantry, Guerilla tactics
–- Poor for Mechanization and Armor
• Urban – Favors Infantry , guerrilla tactics–– Poor
for Armor

29. Key Technological innovations during
War in the 20th
century.
• Tank – British – WWI – ended Trench Warfare
• Airplane – WWI - Many different reasons Added
3rd
dimension
• Jet Engine – Germans - WWII – Changed
Airpower
• Radar – British- WWII - Early detection, helped
win Battle of Britain

30. • Aircraft Carrier – US/Japan - WWII –
Changed Naval Combat
• Ballistic Missile – Germans - WWII –
Unstoppable and long range
• Nuclear Bomb – US –WWII - Most Bang
for the Buck
• Helicopter – US –Korean War -
Resurrected Cavalry, Saved a lot of lives.

31. Military Terms
• Military organization led by
– Army - depends on need Gen.
– Corp - many divisions Gen.
– Division - 2 to 3 Brig./Batts. Gen.
– Brigade - 2 batts. + 1 comp.- Col
– Battalion - 4 to 5 companies- Maj.
– Company - 3 platoons - Capt
– Platoon - 3 squads - Lt.
– Squad - 10 men – Sgt(NCO)

32. Military Ranks
• Army
• Officers
– General
– Colonel
– Major
– Captain
– Lieutenant
• Enlisted
– Sergent (NCO)
– Corporal
– Private
Navy
Officers
Admiral
Captain
Commodore
Commander
Lieutenant
Ensign
Enlisted
Petty Officer(NCO)
Seaman/sailor

33. • Strategy
– The big picture…. overall plan for a war or
battle
• Tactics
– The methods used to implement the strategy
– Smaller scale
• Flanking – attacking from the side or rear
• Logistics – getting people and supplies to
the battle or war.
• Reconnaissance – scouting and spying,
finding out where the enemy is

34. • Infantry – foot soldiers
• Armor – Tanks, Armored Personal
Carriers(APC)
• Artillery – big cannons or rockets, shot
from a long distance usually
• Ballistic Missile – guided and self powered
projectile – usually rocket powered
• Capitol ships – biggest vessels in navy used
to project power