戦争

War — Grokipedia Fact-checked by Grok 1 month ago War Ara Eve Leo Sal 1x War is a state of organized, large-scale armed conflict between political entities such as states, nations, or groups, involving the deliberate use of lethal force to compel an adversary to submit to one's will or achieve strategic objectives. [1] [2] Rooted in the competition of major interests, it manifests as a duel extended across societies, blending violence , uncertainty, and instrumental policy in pursuit of power, resources, or security . [3] [4] As a recurrent phenomenon in human affairs, war has driven territorial conquests, technological innovations in weaponry, and shifts in governance , while exacting immense costs in human lives, economic devastation, and social disruption. [5] Empirical assessments reveal that wars from the 15th to 20th centuries alone accounted for tens of millions of fatalities, with totals escalating through mechanized and total warfare tactics that blurred distinctions between combatants and non-combatants. [6] The 20th century's major conflicts, including the World Wars, demonstrated warfare's capacity for industrialized slaughter, resulting in over 100 million deaths when combining direct violence , starvation , and disease . [7] Consequences extend beyond immediate battlefields to long-term effects like demographic imbalances, infrastructure ruin, and altered global power dynamics, often perpetuating cycles of instability despite institutional attempts at restraint through treaties and norms. [8] [9] Defining characteristics include strategic deception , escalation risks, and the potential for decisive victories or protracted stalemates, underscoring war's role as both a tool of policy and a gamble with uncertain outcomes. [10] Definition and Scope Definition War constitutes organized, collective violence between political entities—typically states, nations, or organized non-state groups—pursued to impose one's will on an adversary through the threat or application of lethal force on a sustained scale. [11] This distinguishes war from individual or disorganized violence, requiring structured command, logistics, and strategic intent to achieve political ends, such as territorial control, regime change , or resource extraction. [12] The Prussian theorist Carl von Clausewitz , in his 1832 treatise On War , characterized war as "an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfil our will," framing it as the continuation of policy by other means when diplomatic avenues fail. [13] This view underscores war's instrumental nature, where violence serves as a tool for resolving disputes that negotiation cannot, bounded only by the reciprocating force of the opponent and the friction of real-world execution, including uncertainty, chance, and human factors. War is both science and art: the science of measurable elements, the art of creative judgment in the dynamic interplay of wills; it evolves with time and invention, yet its nature remains unchanging—a severe test of character and resolve. [14] Empirically, political scientists operationalize war through thresholds like at least 1,000 battle-related deaths per year in interstate or intrastate contexts, as in datasets tracking conflicts since 1816, to quantify its occurrence and scale. [10] In international law , the formal concept of "war" has diminished since the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact renounced aggressive war and the 1945 UN Charter Article 2(4) prohibited threats or uses of force against territorial integrity , rendering declarations of war obsolete—none have occurred between major powers since 1945. [15] Instead, "international armed conflict" applies to hostilities between states, while "non-international armed conflict" covers intra-state violence meeting intensity and organization criteria, as codified in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols. [16] These distinctions regulate conduct without legitimizing initiation, reflecting a causal reality where unchecked force escalates to mutual destruction unless constrained by law or mutual deterrence. Civil wars , comprising over 90% of conflicts since 1945, mirror interstate wars in destructiveness but arise from internal power struggles, often prolonging due to ideological commitments or external interventions. [11] Etymology and Terminology The English term "war" entered the language in the late 11th century via Old English wyrre or werre , borrowed from Old North French werre (cognate with modern French guerre ), which stems from Frankish werra denoting "confusion," "discord," or "strife." [17] This Germanic root traces to Proto-Indo-European wers- , meaning "to confuse" or "mix up," emphasizing the disordered essence of large-scale violence rather than mere combat. [18] Earlier native Old English words like beadu (battle), hild (fight), ġewinn (strife), and wīġ (war or battle) were largely supplanted by the Norman-influenced term during the Middle English period, reflecting linguistic shifts post-Conquest. [17] Across Indo-European languages , equivalents often derive from concepts of chaos or contest, diverging from Latin bellum (from duellum , implying duel or strike). For instance, Romance languages adopted Germanic werra as guerra (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese), while Germanic tongues use forms like German Krieg (from Old High German krīgan , to strive) and Dutch oorlog (from oorlog , original war or ancient strife). [19] Slavic voyna (Russian) relates to leading or capturing, and Greek pólemos evokes rivalry or battle. [20] These etymologies underscore war's portrayal as disruptive turmoil rather than structured antagonism in many traditions. In modern terminology, "war" denotes sustained, organized armed conflict between political entities, typically states or organized groups, involving lethal force to achieve objectives like territorial control or regime change . [21] International humanitarian law distinguishes international armed conflict —protracted combat between states' forces—and non-international armed conflict —internal hostilities between a state and dissident groups or between groups, provided they reach a threshold of intensity beyond sporadic violence . [21] [22] Related terms include civil war for intra-state strife risking sovereignty, total war for conflicts mobilizing entire societies and economies, and armed conflict as a broader category encompassing undeclared hostilities without formal war declarations, which have declined since the 1949 Geneva Conventions emphasized de facto conditions over declarations. [22] [23] Ceasefires, armistices, and truces denote temporary halts, distinct from enduring peace treaties resolving underlying disputes. [22] Historical Development Prehistoric and Ancient Warfare Evidence of inter-group violence predates settled agriculture, with skeletal remains from Nataruk , Kenya , dated to approximately 10,000 years ago, showing blunt force trauma, arrow wounds, and bound limbs on 27 hunter-gatherers, indicating a deliberate massacre rather than individual disputes. [24] [25] Similarly, the Jebel Sahaba site in Sudan , around 13,400 years old, reveals repeated conflicts through arrowheads embedded in bones and cut marks on over 100 skeletons, suggesting sustained hostility between groups amid resource scarcity in the Nile Valley. [26] [27] These findings challenge notions that warfare emerged solely with farming, as nomadic foragers engaged in lethal raids driven by competition over water and territory. [28] In the Neolithic period, following the adoption of agriculture around 9000 BCE, fortifications proliferated, signaling organized conflict; Linearbandkeramik (LBK) settlements along the Rhine featured ditches and palisades, with skeletal evidence of mass violence in sites like Talheim, Germany , where 34 individuals were clubbed to death circa 5000 BCE. [29] Such defenses protected surplus grain stores from raiders, while weapon caches including slings and axes indicate tactical shifts toward group assaults on villages. [30] This era marked the transition to endemic warfare, fueled by population growth and property defense, with burned settlements underscoring retaliatory strikes. [31] Ancient warfare crystallized in Mesopotamia by the Early Dynastic period, around 2500 BCE, where city-states like Lagash fielded phalanx-like infantry formations of spearmen with overlapping shields, as depicted on the Stele of the Vultures commemorating Eannatum's victory over Umma through close-order melee and divine sanction. [32] [33] Chariots emerged later for flanking maneuvers, but infantry clashes over irrigation canals drove conquests, with professional levies supplemented by mercenaries. [34] In Egypt , pharaonic armies from the Old Kingdom onward emphasized archery and chariots introduced by the Hyksos around 1650 BCE, using composite bows to soften foes before infantry charges with khopesh swords and axes targeting flanks. [35] [36] Tactics involved feigned retreats to lure enemies into ambushes, as at Megiddo in 1457 BCE, where Thutmose III's forces encircled Canaanites, demonstrating coordinated pursuit over 18 years of campaigns securing trade routes. [37] The Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–612 BCE) innovated siegecraft with iron-reinforced battering rams, mobile towers, and earthen ramps to breach walls, enabling conquest of fortified cities like Lachish in 701 BCE through combined arms of archers, spearmen, and engineers. [38] [39] A standing professional army of up to 200,000, trained in rapid marches and psychological terror via impalements, sustained empire through systematic deportation and resource extraction. [40] Greek hoplite warfare from the 7th century BCE relied on the phalanx , a dense formation of citizen-soldiers in bronze armor wielding 8-foot spears and hoplon shields, advancing in lockstep to shatter enemy lines via shield-wall pressure, as refined at battles like Marathon in 490 BCE. [41] Discipline and mutual su