A ghost is haunting in Europe. War has been raging on the continent again for a good month. At the end of February, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. They want to end the genocide in the east of the country, which is being committed against the Russian minority, and prevent a major Ukrainian offensive. This is how Russia justified its invasion. But there is no evidence either of genocide or of Ukrainian plans of attack. Now fear is growing in Europe of the unpredictability of Russia and its rulers – and of a possible third world war.
Many initially denied that the Ukraine war is not the first major military conflict since the Second World War. Even the fact that war has been raging in Ukraine since 2014, even if it was limited to Donbass to the east, was forgotten by many, especially at the beginning of the Russian invasion. Military clashes in eastern Ukraine have been on the agenda since the annexation of Crimea.
And even that is not the first war in Europe since 1945. But what does “war” actually mean?
War is politics by other means
“War is a mere continuation of politics by other means,” the military historian Carl von Clausewitz once wrote. Researchers from the Working Group on the Causes of War (AKUF) at the University of Hamburg have developed certain criteria. Violent mass conflicts become wars when they exhibit the following characteristics:
- To have to at least two armed forces involved be. At least one side must be part of the regular government forces. Accordingly, the military, paramilitary organizations or police units must be involved in the conflict.
- The war must controlled by a central organization and get organized.
- The armed conflicts not only take place spontaneously and occasionally, but continually.
Shortly after World War II ended, the next conflict began in Greece. Since then there have been repeated military conflicts. Many of them took place in Eastern Europe and are related to the collapse of the Soviet Union. But while the Ukraine war is a war of aggression, most other wars in Europe have been separatism or civil wars. In retrospect, the case of Ukraine remains an exception. An overview.
Sources: , , , , State Center for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg, material from DPA and AFP
Source: Stern
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