Warfare is the way in which a war is conducted. The nature of warfare has changed a lot since the days of chivalry and masses of soldiers meeting on the battlefield.

One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter

Warfare can be split by perception and technology. Perceptive warfare types have evolved with wider social, political and ideological changes while technological warfare types have evolved with the advancement of new ways of killing each other.

Perceptive warfare types

Irregular warfare

When Irregular warfare began, it was the first time where the formal army didn’t take part in battle. Irregulars were common men who deployed their services to the state, they were not paid members of the army and they did not have to accept orders.

This of course made them highly versatile in their allegiance. They were fighting mainly for their ideology, religion or for their state rather than for money. However when the opposing army met them they referred to them as mercenaries.

Psychological warfare

So called ‘Shock and awe’ tactics. It is where the government presents it’s military as unstoppable and infinite in resources by quick and decisive offensives in order to lower the enemy morale with the ultimate goal of a quick and quiet victory.

This can come in the form of military action as well as published propoganda.

During world war II, the Japanese organised as English broadcasting station which emitted false news reports to the American forces as they island hopped their way across the Pacific.

In the modern era, twenty-four hour non-governmental television stations across the world give upto the minute accounts of the battlefront making false information difficult to produce. This does not mean that bias still exists and even in the Iraq war, the Iraqi Information Minister held press conferences to release largely false information.

Guerrilla/Partisan warfare

The image of this tactic conjures up ideas of irregulars hiding in the countryside of oppressive or disagreeable regimes, setting up ambushes and raids on towns.

This is pretty much accurate, Guerrilla warfare can often bring to a halt to even the biggest of superpowers. The Americans in Vietnam and Soviets in Afghanistan withdrew because of the actions of Guerrillas. Partisans while numbering a few tend to attack the infrastructure or supply of an army rather than conduct assaults on the main body of forces with the goal of lowering the enemies morale or create more support for their ideology.

Counter-insurgency warfare

So what is the tactic used by the army on the receiving end of Guerrillas and Partisans?

Insurgents are very good at hiding and thus a confrontation is practically impossible, the countryside is a big place. The employed tactic is to wait for the enemy to come to you by implementing a strong security presence and setting up-road blocks to stop or to the slow the movement of the insurgents and win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the locals to prevent the Guerrillas from reaching their goal.

The classic examples of counter-insurgency warfare are the Nazi occupation of France and the American occupation of Iraq.

Technological warfare types

Trench warfare

The trenches of World War I were the first time where two opposing armies were stopped in their tracts. Cavalry charges were no longer the major swaying force of the battle as they were shred to pieces by machine guns.

Trench warfare involved both sides building a long ditch from 2-5 m deep and mounting the majority of their forces inside. It was a deadly war of attrition as soon as the troops left the trench to attack the enemy they were immediately set up on the enemies machine guns.

The only thing that was as worse as the enemy was the condition of the trenches themselves. They were insect and disease infested and the soldiers inhabiting them experienced all types of harsh weather from blazing heat to extreme cold.

Mechanised warfare

The rise of the machines in warfare started off in the Bronze age with the development of the catapult and horse-drawn chariot. Since then machines have been taking a larger role in combat especially with the evolution of the armoured fighting vehicle (or tank) and aircraft.

So why is this a form of warfare?

The evolution of killing machines means that the power to kill hundreds of thousands of people can now be held in the hands of few hands. Long gone are the days were you had to kill one person at a time, technology has amplified the killing power of the human.

Urban warfare

Wars have been fought as long as there has been cities. Urban warfare congers up images of close-combat with the streets ablaze. The invention of range combat rifles changed the nature in which fighting in cities occurred. Snipers can hide in the tallest buildings taking pot shots at passing infantry.

The geography of a city has formed an entirely new terrain of which wars can be fought.

Amphibious warfare

An army attacking from the sea is an old tactic. The Vandals used it to attack Roman North Africa, the Romans used it to attack Britain, Britain used it to land their forces in Iraq.

The classic example of amphibious warfare is the D-day landings in Normandy. Amphibious warfare has the advantage of surprise and presuming you have a naval advantage, defensive cover. Because of logistical difficulties of deploying soldiers en mass on a beach head, coastal defences can often make light work of any attacking army.

Precision warfare

The goal of the United Nations to prevent war, however where there has to be a war they would like for there not be any civilian and innocent causalities. The goal of precision warfare to just attack your enemy army and government and leave the people untouched.

However when mistakes are made in precision warfare, it provides fuel for the enemy to show the world and their people of the evil attackers which provides the obvious morale affects.

An example of Precision warfare is the NATO assaults on Serbian army positions around Sarajevo.

Electronic warfare

While there hasn’t been any real electronic warfare, the United States military has the capacity to disable any computer in the world (as long as its connected to the internet) with a computer virus. Likewise hackers have been done to infiltrate the computers of the United States military.

The use of radio communications by most, if not all armed services has become the target of attack and espionage.

It is expected in the future that Electronic warfare will play a greater tactical role in war in an attempt to disable a countries infrastructure, broadcasting and communications network.

Nuclear warfare

This type of warfare involves dropping a single bomb on a city which has the capability of annihilating that city.

World War II is the only instance of nuclear warfare being used as a tactic however indirectly the fear of nuclear warfare is a tactic in itself, especially during the cold war.

There is other uses of nuclear material in the use of long range artillery and low yield missiles.

Chemical and Biological warfare

This is the use of compounds while the sole purpose of attacking people with no physical damage to the infrastructure. However the gas can enter the ecosystem making the area inhabitable for deacades.

World War I is the first instance of where Chlorine Gas was used as an offensive weapon. The use of these weapons however was banned under the Genéva convention but that did'nt stop Saddam Hussein when he ordered the bombing the kurds in Northern Iraq 1988 killing 5,000 and injuring 10,000

Final word

It is often quite difficult to say when one type of warfare starts and another stops. Military forces will often deploy more than form of warfare to defend themselves or complete their objectives.