war

Also known as military conflict, wars, hostilities

War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organized groups.

AI overview

War is a large-scale armed conflict fought between countries' militaries or between government forces and organized armed groups that have leadership and can carry out sustained fighting. It matters because it involves significant loss of life, destruction of resources, and can reshape political boundaries, economies, and societies.

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Commons category: War
hashtag: wars
P8168: Bassing

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~43 min read

Article

36 sections

Contents

Etymology
History
Types of warfare
Aims
Definition
Classification
Effects
Conflict zones
Casualties
Largest wars by death toll
On military personnel
On civilians
Economic
World War II
Theories of motivation
Psychoanalytic
Evolutionary
Economic
Marxist
Demographic
Malthusian
Youth bulge
Cultural
Rationalist
Political science
System-level
Societal-level
Individual-level
Ethics
Limiting and stopping
Pauses
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links

It is generally characterized by widespread violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. War aims typically involve the pursuit of political, economic, or territorial objectives. Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties.