ABSTRACT
War, evidently, is understood in remarkably different ways by its leading philosophers. All agree, however, that war is most frequently violent; most, quintessentially so. Similarly, there is a consensus that war is a strategy, an instrument of attainment – of territory, wealth, honour, or some other such political objective. And there is a widespread acknowledgment that the nature of war waged by particular states is determined by the nature of the state itself; that, in other words, war cannot be divorced from its social and political origins: guerrillas fight small wars using bands of armed irregulars, whereas developed nations prosecute industrialised mass slaughter. There is a natural tendency for available resources to be used to their utmost, political considerations permitting.
