Outline of war

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to war:

War Outline
Part of a series on

History Prehistoric Ancient Post-classical castles Early modern pike and shot napoleonic Late modern industrial fourth-gen
Military Organization Command and control Defense ministry Army Navy Air force Marines Coast guard Space force Reserves Regular / Irregular Ranks Specialties: Staff Engineers Intelligence Reconnaissance Medical Military police Land units: Infantry Armor Cavalry Artillery Special forces Signal corps Naval units: Warships Submarines Aircraft carriers Landing craft Auxiliary ship Air units: Fighters Bombers Command Close air support Electronic-warfare Reconnaissance Combat systems: Fire-control system Fire-control radar Director (military) Combat information center Sonar Radar Historical: Ship gun fire-control Gun data computer Torpedo data computer Development: Basic training Military manoeuvrers Combat training
Battlespace Aerospace Air Airborne Space Land Cold-region Desert Jungle Mountain Urban Subterranean Tunnel Sea Amphibious Blue Brown Green Surface Underwater Cyber Information
Weapons Air defence Armor Artillery Barrage Biological Camouflage Cavalry Horses Air cavalry Chemical Combined arms Conventional Cyber Denial Disinformation Drone / Robot Electromagnetic Infantry Loitering Missile Music Nuclear Psychological Radiological Unconventional
Tactics List of military tactics Aerial Airlift Air assault Airbridge Airdrop Battle Cavalry Charge Counterattack Counterinsurgency Defeat in detail Foxhole Drone Envelopment Guerrilla Morale Naval Rapid dominance Siege Swarm Screen Tactical objective Target saturation Trench Withdrawal
Operational Military operation Operations research Blitzkrieg Expeditionary Deep operation Maneuver Operational manoeuvre group Raid
Strategy List of military strategies and concepts Military campaign Attrition Commerce raiding Counter-offensive Culminating Defence in depth Fabian Empty fort Mosaic Deception Defensive Depth Goal Nuclear Naval Offensive Scorched earth
Grand strategy Asymmetric Blockade Broken-backed Class Cold war Colonial Conquest Containment Divide and conquer Economic Endemic Fleet in being Irregular Liberation Limited Network-centric New generation Perpetual Political Princely Proxy Religious Resource Strategic Succession Technology Theater Total war World war
Administrative Branch Policy Staff Training Service Sociology
Organization Area of responsibility Chain of command Command and control Doctrine Principles of war Economy of force Medicine Engineers Intelligence Ranks Technology and equipment
Personnel Recruitment counter Conscription Training Specialism Women Children Transgender harassment Conscientious objector Volunteer foreign Mercenary
Logistics History Military–industrial complex Arms industry Materiel Supply-chain management Base MOB FOB Outpost
Science Power projection Loss-of-strength gradient Lanchester's laws
Law Court-martial Geneva Conventions Geneva Protocol Islamic rules Justice Perfidy Jewish laws on war Right of conquest Rules of engagement Martial law War crime
Theory Air supremacy Command of the sea Full-spectrum dominance Overmatch Unrestricted Warfare Just war theory Principles of war Philosophy of war Security dilemma Tripwire force War games
Non-warfare Arms control Anti-subversion Counter-insurgency deterrence Disaster response Grey-zone Humanitarian aid Law enforcement Low-intensity conflict Military engineering Multilateralism Peacekeeping Peacebuilding
Culture Awards and decorations Warrior caste War film Military science fiction War novel Anti-war movement Foot drill War song Uniform
Related Women in war War resister War studies Horses in warfare Wartime sexual violence Fifth column
Lists Battles Military occupations Military terms Operations Sieges War crimes Wars Weapons Writers
v t e

War – organised and often prolonged armed conflict that is carried out by states or non-state actors – is characterised by extreme violence, social disruption, and economic destruction. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence or intervention.

Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general.

Types of war

Types of warfare

Warfare by objective

Warfare by strategic doctrine

Warfare by terrain

Warfare by equipment or weapon type

Warfare by era

Warfare by stages Other

Champion warfare

History of war

Locations of ongoing conflicts worldwide, Update: May 2024 Major wars, 10,000+ deaths in current or past year Wars, 1,000–9,999 deaths in current or past year Minor conflicts, 100–999 deaths in current or past year Skirmishes and clashes, fewer than 100 deaths.

Warfare by era

See: Warfare by era

Wars

Wars by death toll

List of wars by death toll

Wars by date

Wars by region

List of conflicts in North America
- List of conflicts in the United States
- List of conflicts in Canada
List of conflicts in Central America
List of conflicts in South America
List of conflicts in Europe
List of conflicts in Asia
- List of wars involving Iran
- List of Chinese wars and battles
Conflicts in the Middle East
- List of conflicts in the Near East (until 1918)
- List of modern conflicts in the Middle East (after 1918)
List of conflicts in Africa
- Conflicts in the Horn of Africa (East Africa)
- List of modern conflicts in North Africa (Maghreb)
- Military history of Africa

Wars by type of conflict

Battles

Military theory

Military organization

Operational level of war

Military operations

Types of military operations

Types of military operations, by scope:

Theater – operation over a large, often continental area of operation and represents a strategic national commitment to the conflict such as Operation Barbarossa, with general goals that encompass areas of consideration outside of the military such as the economic and political impacts.
Campaign – subset of the theatre operation, or a more limited geographic and operational strategic commitment such as Battle of Britain, and need not represent total national commitment to a conflict, or have broader goals outside of the military impacts.
Battle – subset of a campaign that will have specific military goals and geographic objectives, as well as clearly defined use of forces such as the Battle of Gallipoli, which operationally was a combined arms operation originally known as the "Dardanelles landings" as part of the Dardanelles Campaign, where about 480,000 Allied troops took part.
Engagement – tactical combat event of contest for specific area or objective by actions of distinct units. For example, the Battle of Kursk, also known from its German designation as Operation Citadel, included many separate engagements, several of which were combined into the Battle of Prokhorovka. The "Battle of Kursk" in addition to describing the initial German offensive operation (or simply an offensive), also included two Soviet counter-offensive operations Operation Kutuzov and Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev.
Strike – single attack, upon a specified target. This often forms part of a broader engagement. Strikes have an explicit goal, such as, rendering facilities inoperable (e.g. airports), to assassinating enemy leaders, or to limit supply to enemy troops.

Military strategy

Grand strategy

Military tactics

Politics of war

Casus belli – Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. In theory, present international law allows only three situations as legal cause to go to war: out of self-defense, defense of an ally under a mutual defense pact, or sanctioned by the UN.
Declaration of war
Surrender
- Capitulation an agreement in time of war for the surrender to a hostile armed force of a particular body of troops, a town or a territory.
- Strategic surrender – surrender to avoid a last, chaotic round of fighting that would have the characteristics of a rout, allowing the victor to obtain his objective without paying the costs of a last battle.
- Unconditional surrender – surrender without conditions, except for those provided by international law.
Victory
- Debellatio – when a war ends because of the complete destruction of a belligerent state.
- No quarter – when a victor shows no clemency or mercy and refuses to spare the life of the vanquished when they surrender at discretion. Under the laws of war "... it is especially forbidden ... to declare that no quarter will be given".
- Pyrrhic victory – victory with such a devastating cost that it carries the implication that another such victory will ultimately lead to defeat.
War effort
War economy

Philosophy of war

Philosophy of war – examines war beyond the typical questions of weaponry and strategy, inquiring into such things as the meaning and etiology of war, the relationship between war and human nature, and the ethics of war.

Militarism – belief that war is not inherently bad but can be a beneficial aspect of society.
Realism – its core proposition is a skepticism as to whether moral concepts such as justice can be applied to the conduct of international affairs. Proponents of realism believe that moral concepts should never prescribe, nor circumscribe, a state's behaviour. Instead, a state should place an emphasis on state security and self-interest. One form of realism – descriptive realism – proposes that states cannot act morally, while another form – prescriptive realism – argues that the motivating factor for a state is self-interest. Just wars that violate Just Wars principles effectively constitute a branch of realism.
Revolution and Civil War – Just War Theory states that a just war must have just authority. To the extent that this is interpreted as a legitimate government, this leaves little room for revolutionary war or civil war, in which an illegitimate entity may declare war for reasons that fit the remaining criteria of Just War Theory. This is less of a problem if the "just authority" is widely interpreted as "the will of the people" or similar. Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions side-steps this issue by stating that if one of the parties to a civil war is a High Contracting Party (in practice, the state recognised by the international community,) both Parties to the conflict are bound "as a minimum, the following provisions." Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention also makes clear that the treatment of prisoners of war is binding on both parties even when captured soldiers have an "allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power."
Consequentialism – moral theory most frequently summarized in the words "the end justifies the means," which tends to support the just war theory (unless the just war causes less beneficial means to become necessary, which further requires worst actions for self-defense with bad consequences).
Pacifism – belief that war of any kind is morally unacceptable or pragmatically not worth the cost. Pacifists extend humanitarian concern not just to enemy civilians but also to combatants, especially conscripts. For example, Ben Salmon believed all war to be unjust. He was sentenced to death during World War I (later commuted to 25 years hard labor) for desertion and spreading propaganda.
Right of self-defence – maintains (based on rational self-interest) that the use of retaliatory force is justified against repressive nations that break the zero aggression principle. In addition, if a free country is itself subject to foreign aggression, it is morally imperative for that nation to defend itself and its citizens by whatever means necessary. Thus, any means to achieve a swift and complete victory over the enemy is imperative. This view is prominently held by Objectivists.

Laws of war

Prisoners of war

Prison camps
- Concentration camp
- Internment camp
- Labor camp
- Death or extermination camp
- Prisoner-of-war camp
Prison escape
- List of prisoner-of-war escapes
List of notable prisoners of war
Prisoner of war mail
- Postal censorship

Effects of war

Casualties
- Casualty
- Casualty classifications
  - KIA – Killed In Action
    - DOW – Died Of Wounds
  - MIA – Missing In Action
  - WIA – Wounded in action
- Assassination
List of genocides by death toll

War and culture

War-related media

War publications

War films

List of war films and TV specials – lists movies and shows by the war depicted in them, the sections arranged chronologically

Persons influential in war

List of military writers

Inventors of Military Technology

During the Classical Period

Listed by date of approximate lifetime

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Near East

Ancient Greece

Ancient India

Ancient China and its enemies

Ancient Rome and its enemies

Late Antiquity

During the Post-classical Period

Early Middle Ages

High Middle Ages

Islamic Golden Age

Medieval India

Medieval China

Medieval Southeast Asia

Mongol Conquests

Hundred Years War

During the Early Modern Period

Japanese Wars

Islamic Empires

European Colonization of the Americas

Early Modern Europe

Chinese Qing dynasty

American Revolutionary War

Napoleonic Wars

Modern Period

American Civil War

During World War I

During World War II

This is divided between political Leaders, field commanders and other influential people

Political Leaders

Commanders

Others

Richard Sorge, Russian spy
Sofia Vembo

References

^ a b "American Heritage Dictionary: War". Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
^ "Merriam Webster's Dictionary: War". Merriam-Webster. 13 August 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
^ "War". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2017.
^ "Warfare". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
^ Staff of the Catholic Peace Fellowship (2007). "The Life and Witness of Ben Salmon". Sign of Peace. 6.1 (Spring 2007).
^ "'Just War Theory'" vs. American Self-Defence Archived 2012-12-09 at archive.today, by Yaron Brook and Alex Epstein

Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod: Encyclopedia of Wars. Facts On File, Inc., 2005, ISBN 0-8160-2851-6. (With about 1,800 wars, this is probably the most complete overview in English language).
R. Ernest Dupuy, Trevor N. Dupuy: The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History. From 3500 B.C. to the Present. 4th Edition, HarperCollins Publishers, 1993, ISBN 978-0062700568. (With about 1,300 wars this is probably the second most complete overview in English language, with the added value to summarize about 4,500 battles).
Vittorio Ferretti: Weltchronik der Kriege und Demozide - Ein Abriss der Ursachen, Abläufe und Folgen von über 5.000 gewalttätig ausgetragenen Konflikten bis zum Jahr 2000. Amazon, 2014, ISBN 978-3000403538. (With over 5,000 conflicts, this German book is by far the most complete overview published in any language until now. Its added value is to include democides into its scope).

External links

War at Wikipedia's sister projects

Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity

World History Database Listing of all wars
Newspaper by Martin John Callanan translated into different languages listing all wars
Correlates of War Project
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
Complex Emergency Database (CE-DAT) – A database on the human impact of conflicts and other complex emergencies.
World War I primary source collection
International humanitarian law – International Committee of the Red Cross website
International humanitarian law database – Treaties and States Parties
Customary IHL Database
War zone safety travel guide from Wikivoyage

v t e Wikipedia outlines
General reference Culture and the arts Geography and places Health and fitness History and events Mathematics and logic Natural and physical sciences People and self Philosophy and thinking Religion and belief systems Society and social sciences Technology and applied sciences

v t e Lists of wars by date
Before 1000 1000–1499 1500–1799 1800–1899 1900–1944 1945–1989 1990–2002 2003–present
Longest wars Ongoing military conflicts

Ongoing armed conflicts

Africa

Central	Allied Democratic Forces insurgency Anglophone Crisis Cabinda War Central African Republic Civil War Insurgency in Chad Insurgency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Ituri conflict Western DR Congo clashes Kivu conflict M23 offensive Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
East	ADF insurgency Ethiopian civil conflict Afar–Somali clashes OLA insurgency Oromo conflict War in Amhara Ethnic violence in South Sudan Insurgency in Mozambique Somali Civil War Operation Atalanta
North	Insurgency in Egypt Insurgency in the Maghreb Insurgency in the Sahel Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso Jihadist insurgency in Niger Libyan Crisis Sinai insurgency Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile Sudanese nomadic conflicts Ethnic violence in South Sudan War in Darfur Western Sahara conflict Western Saharan clashes
West	Communal conflicts in Nigeria Boko Haram insurgency Herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria Nigerian bandit conflict Religious violence in Nigeria Conflict in the Niger Delta Insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria Mali War Azawad conflict Western Togoland Rebellion

Americas

North	Jamaican political conflict Mexican drug war Salvadoran gang crackdown Honduran gang crackdown Gang war in Haiti
South	Colombian conflict Ecuadorian security crisis Insurgency in Paraguay Peruvian conflict Mapuche conflict

Asia

East	Korean conflict
Central	Xinjiang conflict
South	Afghan conflict Islamic State–Taliban conflict Republican insurgency Internal conflict in Bangladesh Drugs Insurgency in Northeast India Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir Naxalite–Maoist insurgency Insurgency in Pakistan Insurgency in Sindh Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Afghanistan–Pakistan border skirmishes Insurgency in Sindh Sectarian violence in Pakistan
South- east	Myanmar conflict Myanmar civil war Kachin conflict Kalay clashes Karen conflict Karen–Mon conflict Conflict in Rakhine State Rohingya conflict Conflicts in the Philippines Communist Drug war Papua conflict South Thailand insurgency
West	Abkhazia conflict Georgian–Ossetian conflict Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency Iraq conflict Islamic State insurgency in Iraq Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict Qatif conflict Yemeni crisis Saudi–led intervention Yemeni Civil war Iran–Israel proxy conflict Gaza–Israel conflict Hezbollah–Israel conflict Iran–Israel conflict in Syria Kurdish separatism in Iran Iran–PJAK conflict Western Iran clashes Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency 2015–present Maoist insurgency in Turkey Syrian civil war Daraa insurgency Desert campaign Inter-rebel conflict Rojava conflict Russian intervention Syrian–Turkish border clashes Islamic State insurgency in Deir ez-Zor

Europe

East	Abkhazia conflict Georgian–Ossetian conflict Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus Russo-Ukrainian War Russian invasion of Ukraine
West	Dissident Irish republican campaign Loyalist feud

Outline of war

Types of war

Types of warfare

History of war

Warfare by era

Wars

Battles

Military theory

Military organization

Military strategy

Politics of war

Philosophy of war

Laws of war

Prisoners of war

Effects of war

War and culture

War-related media

War publications

War films

Persons influential in war

Inventors of Military Technology

During the Classical Period

During the Post-classical Period

During the Early Modern Period

Modern Period

See also

War

Wars

References

External links