The Term ' Total War '

Throughout history, there have been a multitude of examples of wars brought too close to home. At times, there comes a point in war where consideration of innocent lives becomes thin, and all energy is put towards war efforts, rather than any other aspect of human life. These points in history are referred to as total war. Examples of total war can be seen as far back as in the ancient civilizations of Rome and Persia, however, the paragon of total war can be found in World War Two. Based on the overall involvement of a vast multitude of civilians, economies and countries targeted and impacted throughout the war, World War Two is the strongest example of total war in American history.

War: a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state. War is not just a fight between two organized groups, it is a living hell where people decide if they are going to live or die. The horrors of war are manifested with great detail and imagery in All Quiet on the Western Front, “The Hollow Men”, and In the Field.

A total war is a conflict which involves bringing together resources; this includes both industrial and military resources aiming at having an output that the enemy will not overcome at all (Castellano, 2016). The biggest difference that exists between a total war and a normal war is that there is really zero difference between those fighting in the same war and the civilians in this period; all these people are considered an enemy.

In his writing, he stated that war is intrinsically vast, communal (or political) and violent. It is an actual, widespread and deliberate armed conflict between political communities, motivated by a sharp disagreement over governance” (p.135)

The term ‘war’ as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is explained as “a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country” (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2016). The concept of war has created contrasting views on the relationship between war and genocide as well as the effect that war has on genocide. The term ‘genocide’ literally means ‘the killing of a race’ and is arguably the most atrocious crime conceivable (Gunter, 2011). It is a specific term that refers to crimes that are committed against groups with intent to destroy their existence (Ushmm.org, 2016). There are various motives and numerous reasons as to why genocides may occur, however this paper will seek to address the extent to how, if at all, the concept of war being a necessary condition for the occurrence of genocide, as well as looking at correlations between war and genocide using specific examples to determine whether war is a necessary condition or not.

through the Battle of Stalingrad, the bombing in Dresden and the Blitz in Britain. However, the U-boats necessitated violence in order to achieve a strategic aim, challenging the 'pointless ' notion of the aforementioned statement. (48words)

World War Two, a conflict that involved six continents, three great oceans, scores of countries, and billions of people, epitomizes the perception a war unlike any other. It completely revolutionized modern man’s perception of total war on a global front, where the scale of mobilization, utilization of resources, and the deployment of military personnel the world had never seen before. The aftermath of this war is, in fact, still being felt to this very day, where the ripple effects are far-reaching and ever so subtle. World War Two drastically altered our global landscape through major shifts in our technological, political, and social dynamics.

Basically according to the oxford dictionary, there are several elements which link to total war, which are unrestricted weapons used, territory or combatants involved, objective

The assassination brought many countries involved. WW I thus erupted in 1914. Every people of Europe got involved, helping their country to win the war. Many new advanced weapons were created during WWI. Air plans, poison gas, throwers, machine guns, armored tanks, and submarines were used in war. WWI also had created political chaos, leading to the society in many changes.

Martin van Creveld wrote The Transformation of War book in 1991 when he detailed a predictive hypothesis about the changing character of war into what he called ?Nontrinitarian War. There were conflicts arise as intrastate wars and were not based on the simplified version of Clausewitz?s ?remarkable trinity? of government, people and military forces (Van Creveld, 1991, pg. 49). In his book, Van Creveld offers an account of warfare in the previous millennium and suggests what the future might hold. The drive was that major war was draining and the emergence of forms of war ?that are simultaneously old and new? now threatened to create havoc.

Total war breaks down the line separating combatants and non-combatants through a series of ideological and social justifications that allowed for barbaric acts to be committed. A war becomes total when the nation itself must dedicate every facet of its existence as a state to the war effort. The general population being brought into the war effort brings to question their innocence, thus making them targets for the enemy. The transition from a small scale war into a total war is a gradual process, as adjusting a nation’s economy and society to feed the war is a long and difficult process.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a

Mary Kaldor theory of ‘new wars’ proposes that because of the many changes the world has gone through since the concept of ‘wars’ was first defined, our understanding of wars is outdated. In the modern world, wars are fought using different methods and tactics than the ones that were at one point the standard. Today, both the state and the non-state actors contribute to wars. Wars were once fought for ideological reasons; modern wars, however, are fought in the name of identity politics. The goal of the ‘new wars’ is to achieve political power and control, whereas, old wars were fought by majorly physical means.

The new culture of total war saw to the erasure of all that the philosophers of old had advocated for. The culture of total war meant that the war would be unlimited in all ways. This culture did not care for the number of lives lost, the amount of property destroyed or the amount of resources that would be channeled into fighting and winning the war. This culture

The armed conflict of the world over is always perceived from the perspective of the person who engaged in war. The impacts of these conflicts are most often measured in terms of the strategic and economic losses. But the disadvantaged, which fight the most; the women, children and the aged people,