ABSTRACT
This chapter deals mainly with concepts and with attempts to categorise wars, in themselves very complex historical events, in terms of such concepts. This involves a high degree of abstraction, and any such conceptualisation is therefore controversial. The attempt to identify suitable definitions for the concept of 'total war', and to apply them to real wars and events, does not primarily serve a moral aim. Instead, it is designed to serve as an analytical tool enabling us to compare and contrast different war aims and manifestations of war which can be the basis of any objective judgement about them - as far as phenomena inflicting so much suffering and pain, which for each person experiencing it is a highly personal tragedy, can ever be objectivised. It is only by clarifying such concepts that we can judge whether, according to our definition, nuclear bombing is an act of 'total war', and if so in what sense.
