Limited War and Low Intensity Conflict

Limited war is in many ways the opposite of conventional warfare. Where conventional warfare seeks to reduce an opponent's military capability, limited war is an attempt to achieve military victory through acquiescence, capitulation, or clandestine support for one side of an existing conflict. 

Unconventional warfare seeks to instill a belief that peace and security are not possible without compromise or concession. Objectives include war weariness, curtailment of civilian standards of living and civil liberties associated with greater security demands, economic hardship linked to the costs of war; hopelessness to defend against assaults, fear, depression, and disintegration of morale. The ultimate goal of this type of warfare is to motivate an enemy to stop attacking or resisting even if it has the ability to continue. Failing this, a secondary objective can be to emasculate the enemy before a conventional invasion.

In order to combat limited war across the globe, the doctrine of low intensity conflict (LIC) describes the use of military forces applied selectively and with restraint to enforce compliance with the policies or objectives of the political body controlling the military force.  Generally LIC military operations are against non-state adversaries and are given terms like counter-insurgency, anti-subversion, and peacekeeping. 

This lens is designed to act as a portal for those interested in limited war and low intensity conflict.