The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to war:
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 Asymmetric warfare Expeditionary warfare Expeditionary maneuver warfare
Warfare by objective Defensive warfare Offensive warfare
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
Warfare by era See: Warfare by era
Wars
Wars by death toll List of wars by death toll
Wars by date
Wars by region
Wars by type of conflict
Battles Lists of battles List of battles by casualties List of orders of battle List of sieges
Military theory Military theory Philosophy of war Principles of war War cycles
Military organization
Operational level of war
Blitzkrieg Soviet deep battle Maneuver warfare Operational manoeuvre group
Military operations List of military operations Military operation plan Military operations other than war
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
Attrition warfare Battlespace Military deception Naval strategy Offensive (military) Strategic defence Strategic goal (military)
Grand strategy
Containment Economic warfare Military science Philosophy of war Strategic studies Total war
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 [humanitarian] 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."'Just War Theory'" vs. American Self-Defence , by Yaron Brook and Alex Epstein
Laws of war Laws of war War crimes List of war crimes
Prisoners of war
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 The Art of War On War
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 Mozi Archimedes Wei Boyang Kallinikos Roger Bacon Leonardo da Vinci Richard Jordan Gatling Mikhail Kalashnikov Albert Einstein
During the Classical Period Listed by date of approximate lifetime
Ancient Egypt Mentuhotep Ramesses II Muwatalli I (Hittite) Cleopatra (Greek)
Ancient Near East Hammurabi Sargon II Nebuchadnezzar II Cyrus the Great Darius I Xerxes I
Ancient Greece Themistocles Leonidas I Dionysius I of Syracuse Philip II of Macedon Alexander the Great Diadochi Pyrrhus of Epirus
Ancient India Porus Ashoka Chandragupta
Ancient China and its enemies Sun Tzu Lian Po Bai Qi Li Mu Qin Shi Huang Wang Jin Modu Chanyu Huo Qubing Wei Qing Trung Sisters
Ancient Rome and its enemies Mithridates VI of Pontus Scipio Africanus Hannibal Gaius Marius Julius Caesar Vercingetorix Arminius Boudica Decebalus Trajan Aurelian
Late Antiquity Constantine Flavius Aetius Attila Clovis I Shapur I Khosrow I Belisarius Bahram Chobin Shahin and Shahrbaraz Heraclius Khalid ibn al-Walid
During the Post-classical Period
Early Middle Ages Charlemagne Ivar the Boneless Alfred the Great Cnut the Great Basil the Bulgar Slayer William the Conqueror
High Middle Ages Frederick Barbarossa Henry II of England Richard the Lionheart Philip II of France Alexander Nevsky El Cid
Islamic Golden Age Tariq ibn Ziyad Mahmud of Ghazni Alp Arslan Saladin Baibars
Medieval India Rajadhiraja Chola Prithviraj Chauhan
Medieval China Li Shimin An Lushan Zhao Kuangyin Yelu Dashi Zhu Yuanzhang Zheng He
Medieval Southeast Asia Jayavarman II Gajah Mada Ramathibodi I Le Loi
Mongol Conquests Genghis Khan Ogedei Khan Subutai Kublai Khan Timur
Hundred Years War Edward III Henry V of England Charles VII of France Joan of Arc
During the Early Modern Period Japanese Wars Oda Nobunaga Toyotomi Hideyoshi Tokugawa Ieyasu
Islamic Empires Mehmed the Conqueror Suleiman the Magnificent Nader Shah Akbar
European Colonization of the Americas Hernán Cortés Cuauhtémoc Francisco Pizarro Powhaten Pontiac Crazy Horse Tecumseh Sitting Bull
Early Modern Europe Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden Oliver Cromwell Peter the Great Frederick I of Prussia James Wolfe Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
Chinese Qing dynasty Wu Sangui Kangxi Emperor Koxinga Ching Shih Hong Xiuquan
American Revolutionary War George Washington Horatio Gates Benedict Arnold Marquis de Lafayette Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Napoleonic Wars Horatio Nelson Napoleon Arthur Wellesley Mikhail Kutuzov Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher Andrew Jackson (War of 1812)
Modern Period
American Civil War Ulysses S Grant Stonewall Jackson Robert E Lee George McClellan William Tecumseh Sherman
During World War I Douglas Haig Ferdinand Foch Louis F. d'Esperey John J. Pershing Joseph Joffre Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff Erich von Falkenhayn August von Mackensen
During World War II This is divided between political Leaders, field commanders and other influential people
Political Leaders Winston Churchill Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai Sheck Joseph Stalin Hideki Tojo Harry S. Truman
Commanders Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis Omar Bradley Zhu De Dwight D. Eisenhower Charles de Gaulle Hermann Göring Heinrich Himmler