What Is War? 263What Is War?
International relations scholars maintain a healthy debate about how to define war, over
what counts and does not count as a war. Over time, however, three features have
emerged as agreed- upon standards. First, a war demands or ga nized, deliberate vio lence
by an identifiable po liti cal authority. Riots are often lethal, but they are not consid-
ered “war” because, by definition, a riot is neither deliberate nor or ga nized. Second,
wars are relatively more lethal than other forms of or ga nized vio lence. Pogroms,
bombings, and massacres are deliberate and or ga nized but generally not sufficiently
lethal to count as war. Currently, most international relations scholars accept that at
least 1,000 deaths in a calendar year are needed in order for an event to count as a
war. Third, and fi nally, for an event to count as a war, both sides must have some real
capacity to harm each other, although that capacity need not be equal on both sides.
We do not count genocides, massacres, terrorist attacks, and pogroms as wars because
in a genocide, for example, only one side has any real capacity to kill, while the other
side is effectively defenseless.
In sum, war is an or ga nized and deliberate po liti cal act by an established po liti cal
authority that must cause 1,000 or more deaths in a 12- month period and require at
least two actors capable of harming each other.
These definitional issues are not simply academic. They have real- world conse-
quences. An impor tant case in point was the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which over
LearnIng ObjectIves■ Define war and identify the dif er ent categories of war.
■ Explain how the levels of analy sis help us explain the causes of wars.
■ Describe the key characteristics of conventional and unconventional
warfare.
■ Highlight the circumstances under which a war can be considered “ just.”
■ Explain how realists and liberals difer in their approaches to managing
insecurity.