Types of war

1. War has numerous forms, faces, and shades. In today’s political environment, it is difficult to say, precisely, where peace ends and war begins. Classification of wars is discussed in the following paragraphs.

Classification of Wars

2. Coercion. It is the Active use of force in a measured way or threat of force to persuade an adversary to adopt a certain pattern of behaviour against his wishes. US air attack on Col Qaddafi’s residence in 1986 and American cruise missile attack against Afghanistan in 1998 are the examples of coercion by use of measured force. While, Indian “ Operation Parakrama” in 2001-2 against Pakistan was coercion by threat of force.

3. Sub Conventional Wars. The conflicts waged by, or against, non-state organizations and ranging all the way from terrorism to clashes between armed militias fall in Sub-conventional wars. British Empire, France, America in Vietnam, and the Soviet in Afghanistan faced defeat in this kind of war. Sub-conventional wars include the followings:-

(a)Proxy war. It is a type of war in which one or both the adversaries use third party as a supplement or a substitute for fighting their war. Vietnam, Angola and many other states became the battle grounds for proxies during Cold War. Pakistan fought a proxy war against Soviet in Afghanistan.

(b)Insurgency. It includes all forms of organized and politically-motivated armed violence within a state. It can be in the form of Civil Disturbance which includes group acts of violence and disorder which are prejudicial to public law and order or it can be Revolutionary War aimed to overthrow the state and its social system through guerilla tactics and near-conventional war. Unrest in Sudan, Philippines and Chechnya are the example of insurgent warfare.

(c)Terrorism. It can be defined as premeditated violence perpetrate by groups or individuals with the aim of influencing an audience wider than that of its immediate victims. It is widely believed that terrorists may pursue unconventional means of attack, such as NBC weapons, cyber terrorism and electronic warfare. Suicidal attacks, hijacking of aero-planes and taking hostage are usual means of terrorist attacks. The events of 9/11 have no precedence in the history of terrorism.

4. Conventional Wars. It is defined as “ armed conflicts, not involving the use of nuclear weapons, openly waged by one state against another by means of their regular armies”. Few examples of conventional wars are three Indian-Pakistani wars, five Arab Israeli wars of, the Korean War of 1950-53, the Falklands War and two wars against Iraq (1991 and 2003).

5. Nuclear Wars. It is defined as any conflict which involves the employment of nuclear weapons. Nuclear warfare is very destructive in range and extent of damage. The only example is World War II in which US dropped atomic bombs on “ Hiroshima and Nagasaki”, Japan.

6. Biological and Chemical Warfare. It is a use of harmful or deadly chemical or biological agents as weapons of war. They are modes of non-conventional warfare and are considered WMDs.

(a)Biological Warfare. It involves usage of pathogens or toxins as weapons. These pathogens can be bacteria, viruses or other biological agents which cause diseases to large segments of a target population. The mailing of anthrax bacteria in 2001was a terrorist biological attack by terrorists.

(b)Chemical Warfare. It refers to usage of properties of chemical substances which are toxic in nature. Chemical weapons are made up of poisonous chemical compounds such as nerve gas or dioxin. World War I and the Iran-Iraq War serve as the examples of chemical warfare.