Categories of war?

[LoBlo]

Okeedokee.

So after watching the Russian-Ukraine-USA situation unfolding and speculation on the possible types of conflict that may emerge, I couldn't help but wonder if the styles, levels, or varieties of war could be categorized systematically. If so what would those categories be? It seems like there exist different 'levels' of war which countries engage and prepare for. Some countries are quite limited in the style/type of war that they could engage, while other countries can wage and prepare multiple types of war. For example, the USA concentrated on the 'nuclear continental war' for many decades, but didn't develop effective 'guerrilla/insurgent' capability and has often found itself ineffective when thrown into that arena (i.e. Vietnam, Afghanistan).

For a thought experiment, how would you classify the types of war? Here's a preliminary go for your inspection and critique.

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1. Cold War/Arms Races: Not 'war' per say, but no less resource intensive and inspiring to nationalism. Often leads to #2 'warm conflicts'.

2. Warm conflicts: Neither side is actively bringing its big guns to bare and is often publicly denied by the sides that shots are being traded. Generally limited to small arms. Whether taking pot shots across a disputed border, secretly sabotaging resources, or the occasional 'errant' missile shot, we see this type of conflict between neighbors or arms race rivals.

3. Guerrilla/Insurgent War: No high tech combined arms here. This war is similar to #2 'Warm Conflicts', but differs in that it is waged openly. However, this type of war is limited by either lack of sophisticated military resources in one/both sides or by lack of political will. Still on the order of small arms and sabotage with the occasional missile, rocket, or artillery. Attrition, both politically and in regards to resources, is the path to resolution. One could make the argument that modern terrorism falls into this category, albeit conducted by a political group rather than nation-state.

4. Military Overmatch: A giant and/or more capable bully decides to bring military force on a lesser foe. We see this war quite often in regards to the great powers like USSRs invasion of Afghanistan, USA's frequent military interventions like Kosovo or Iraq, or the potential Russian-Ukraine conflict. This type of war is the most likely war a global power will conduct and most are actively developing ways to wage this type of war more efficiently with the development of drone fleets (air, sea, land). Technologies that wouldn't be very effective against a technologically capable adversary (GPS denial, jammed datalinks, etc), but makes quashing low tech adversaries more of a button push. To survive this type of conflict, the under-powered side must force the conflict into a 'guerrilla/insurgent phase' (#3) and play the patience game as seen in USSR/Afghan 1979, USA/vietnam 1963, USA/Iraqi insurgents 2003, or USA/Afghan currently.

5. Parity-Combined Arms: Open conflict on a larger scale that differs from 'guerrilla war' (#3) in that high-cost high-capability military units are openly brought to bare. It also differs from 'military overmatch' (#4) in that adversaries are similarly capable. They are combined arms conflicts that often involves regional disputes such as the 1980-1988 Iran/Iraq war, but also easily include intercontinental conflicts such as the 1979 British/Argentine Falkland war. This type of conflict demands more resources and is vastly more costly to those involved, and thus is not as frequent. In the modern era, the largest powers avoid these conflicts because of their tremendous cost both financial, resources, and loss of life (for example, a USA vs China war or an India vs Pakistan war). They are also avoided by the great powers secondary to the potential to escalate to #7 'nuclear conflicts'.

6. Total War: No such things as civilians here. We saw these types of wars classically up until WWII (Axis vs Allied powers). Everything possible is brought to bare on the enemy with no distinction between military and civilian targets. No such thing as restraint here. This may not represent a category in and of itself, but rather can be a characteristic of any of the above categories 1-5. In the current modern era, this type of war is politically and internationally radioactive, will incite the wrath of the international community, and is generally only conducted by genocidal madmen (for example, Darfur). It is a prerequisite to #7 'nuclear conflicts'.

7. Nuclear war: War on its grandest and most catastrophic form. Whether with the regional nukes that most countries aspire to or intercontinental barrages between super powers on a civilization-destroying scale, war in its most horrific form with the potential for extreme casualty counts. Only seen once in history during the nuclear bombing on Japan in WWII. It is is generally seen as the deterrent that has prevented direct superpower-vs-superpower conflicts in the last century.

What categories would you add or change? Anything left out?

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