ABSTRACT
Armed conflict pervades contemporary international relations. Frequent local and regional wars and military interventions that end just short of war repeatedly challenge the recent semblance of world peace. Nearly every world region has been afflicted since 1945. Most except the smallest states have forcibly intervened within foreign lands upon some occasion. The hallmark of all contemporary international wars and of all conflicts immediately threatening international war is overt military intervention. Overt military intervention represents direct military operations openly undertaken by a state's regular military forces within foreign lands in such a manner as to risk immediate combat, hence war, merely if they encounter armed resistance. Any overt military intervention creates international armed conflict and heightens risk of war. Each international armed conflict represents incipient warfare even if war does not immediately result. Some international armed conflicts appear to originate within territorial or policy disputes.
