15 SECTION 5 : TYPES OF WARS “War is an act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy to accomplish our will”. – Clausewitz, On War, 1832. CONVENTIONAL WAR 2.5 Conventional war conforms to the traditional image of war and is fought to achieve strategic and military objectives. It does not include the use of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) weapons. It may be total or limited in terms of duration, the range of weapon systems employed, scope, objectives and its ultimate outcome. Given the prohibitive costs in terms of human lives and material, as well as the rising lethality of modern weapons, conventional war may be of short duration. Regional wars arise out of regional issues. The Gulf War (1991) and the Kosovo conflict (1995) are two such examples even though they had repercussions at the international level. A global or general war is a major unrestricted conflict fought between major powers involving some or all their allies. Initially it is likely to employ conventional weapons but may then escalate to the use of weapons of mass destruction to deny victory to the opponent(s). An extended global war of the Second World War pattern is highly unlikely. OPERATIONS OTHER THAN WAR 2.6 Operations Other Than War (OOTW) encompass a wide range of activities where military power is used for purposes other than large scale combat operations normally