Defining War and Aggression
INSTITUTIONALIZED AGGRESSION
War-making by one state or insurgent group against another state or insurgent group (1)
It is the use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of another state including:
- Invasion or attack by armed forces
- Or use of any other weapons
- Blockade of ports or coasts
- Attack on air forces or naval fleets (2)
WAR CAN BE DEFINED AS...
- Violent conflict between organized groups (3)
- The conditions which permit two or more hostile groups to carry on a conflict by armed force (4)
- A struggle for control of government within a governed society (2)
- A clash between major interests that is resolved by bloodshed (5)
- The continuation of politics by other means (5)
- Embraces more than politics: it is the expression of culture, in some societies the culture itself (8)
- "Low-intensity conflicts" (insurgencies, organized terrorism, paramilitary crime, sabotage, and other forms of violence in a shadow area between peace and war) (6)
- Limited wars (wars involving one of the superpowers and a third party that is contained within a well-defined area (wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea) (7)
- Regional wars (fought within or along the boundaries of contending states) (7)
- Civil wars (struggle for power within a state) (7)
- Wars of self-determination or national independence movements (7)
- Total wars mobilisation of troops and use of all available weapons and technology to defeat the enemy) (7)
What do you think?
Sources:
- Andreski, Origins of War
- United Nations
- Glossup, Confronting War
- Wright, A Study of War
- von Clausewitz, On War
- Kissinger, Discriminate Deterrence
- Nye, Hawks, Owls, and Doves
- Keegan, A History of Warfare
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