Editing War (section)

==Aims==
[[File:Flickr - DVIDSHUB - Firefight in the Waterpur Valley.jpg|thumb|[[United States Army]] soldiers engaged in a firefight with [[Taliban insurgency|Taliban insurgents]] during the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|War in Afghanistan]], 2009]]

Entities contemplating going to war and entities considering whether to end a war may formulate ''war aims'' as an evaluation/propaganda tool. War aims may stand as a proxy for national-military resolve.<ref>{{cite book
 |last1            = Sullivan
 |first1           = Patricia
 |title            = Who Wins?: Predicting Strategic Success and Failure in Armed Conflict
 |chapter-url      = https://books.google.com/books?id=ceushfFUCpUC
 |publisher        = Oxford University Press, US
 |page             = 17
 |publication-date = 2012
 |doi              = 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199878338.003.0003
 |isbn             = 978-0199878338
 |access-date      = 2015-08-25
 |quote            = A state with greater military capacity than its adversary is more likely to prevail in wars with 'total' war aims{{snd}}the overthrow of a foreign government or annexation of territory{{snd}}than in wars with more limited objectives.
 |date             = 2012
 |chapter          = War Aims and War Outcomes
 |archive-date     = 13 September 2015
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20150913023410/https://books.google.com/books?id=ceushfFUCpUC
 |url-status       = live
}}</ref>

=== Definition ===
Fried defines war aims as "the desired territorial, economic, military or other benefits expected following successful conclusion of a war".<ref>{{cite book
 |last1            = Fried
 |first1           = Marvin Benjamin
 |title            = Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans During World War I
 |url              = https://books.google.com/books?id=ETDtAwAAQBAJ
 |publisher        = Palgrave Macmillan
 |publication-date = 2014
 |page             = 4
 |isbn             = 978-1137359018
 |access-date      = 2015-08-24
 |quote            = War aims are the desired territorial, economic, military or other benefits expected following successful conclusion of a war.
 |date             = 2014-07-01
 |archive-date     = 17 October 2015
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20151017214443/https://books.google.com/books?id=ETDtAwAAQBAJ
 |url-status       = live
}}</ref>

=== Classification ===

Tangible/intangible aims:
* Tangible war aims may involve (for example) the acquisition of territory (as in the German goal of [[Lebensraum]] in the first half of the 20th century) or the recognition of economic concessions (as in the [[Anglo-Dutch Wars]]).
* Intangible war aims – like the accumulation of credibility or reputation<ref>Welch distinguishes: "tangible goods such as arms, wealth, and – provided they are strategically or economically valuable – territory and resources" from "intangible goods such as credibility and reputation" – {{cite book
 |last1            = Welch
 |first1           = David A.
 |title            = Justice and the Genesis of War
 |url              = https://books.google.com/books?id=i2Z5blE1KGoC
 |series           = Cambridge Studies in International Relations
 |issue            = 29
 |publisher        = Cambridge University Press
 |publication-date = 1995
 |page             = 17
 |isbn             = 978-0521558686
 |access-date      = 2015-08-24
 |date             = 1995
 |archive-date     = 18 September 2015
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20150918185242/https://books.google.com/books?id=i2Z5blE1KGoC
 |url-status       = live
}}</ref> – may have more tangible expression ("conquest restores prestige, annexation increases power").<ref>{{cite book
 |last1            = Fried
 |first1           = Marvin Benjamin
 |title            = Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans During World War I
 |url              = https://books.google.com/books?id=ETDtAwAAQBAJ
 |publisher        = Palgrave Macmillan
 |publication-date = 2014
 |page             = 4
 |isbn             = 978-1137359018
 |access-date      = 2015-08-24
 |quote            = Intangibles, such as prestige or power, can also represent war aims, though often (albeit not always) their achievement is framed within a more tangible context (e.g. conquest restores prestige, annexation increases power, etc.).
 |date             = 2014-07-01
 |archive-date     = 17 October 2015
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20151017214443/https://books.google.com/books?id=ETDtAwAAQBAJ
 |url-status       = live
}}</ref>

Explicit/implicit aims:
* Explicit war aims may involve published policy decisions.
* Implicit war aims<ref>Compare:{{cite news
 |last1        = Katwala
 |first1       = Sunder
 |author-link1 = Sunder Katwala
 |title        = Churchill by Paul Addison
 |url          = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/13/biography.features1
 |department   = Books
 |newspaper    = The Guardian
 |publisher    = Guardian News and Media Limited
 |date         = 2005-02-13
 |access-date  = 2015-08-24
 |quote        = [Churchill] took office and declared he had 'not become the King's First Minister to oversee the liquidation of the British empire'. [...] His view was that an Anglo-American English-speaking alliance would seek to preserve the empire, though ending it was among Roosevelt's implicit war aims.
 |archive-date = 28 September 2016
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20160928012352/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/13/biography.features1
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> can take the form of minutes of discussion, memoranda and instructions.<ref>Compare {{cite book
 |last1            = Fried
 |first1           = Marvin Benjamin
 |title            = Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans During World War I
 |url              = https://books.google.com/books?id=ETDtAwAAQBAJ
 |publisher        = Palgrave Macmillan
 |publication-date = 2014
 |page             = 4
 |isbn             = 978-1137359018
 |access-date      = 2015-08-24
 |quote            = At times, war aims were explicitly stated internally or externally in a policy decision, while at other times [...] the war aims were merely discussed but not published, remaining instead in the form of memoranda or instructions.
 |date             = 2014-07-01
 |archive-date     = 17 October 2015
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20151017214443/https://books.google.com/books?id=ETDtAwAAQBAJ
 |url-status       = live
}}</ref>

Positive/negative aims:
* "Positive war aims" cover tangible outcomes.
* "Negative war aims" forestall or prevent undesired outcomes.<ref>{{cite book
 |last1            = Fried
 |first1           = Marvin Benjamin
 |chapter          = 'A Life and Death Question': Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the First World War
 |editor1-last     = Afflerbach
 |editor1-first    = Holger
 |title            = The Purpose of the First World War: War Aims and Military Strategies
 |chapter-url      = https://books.google.com/books?id=A6AFCgAAQBAJ
 |series           = Schriften des Historischen Kollegs
 |volume           = 91
 |location         = Berlin/Boston
 |publisher        = Walter de Gruyter GmbH
 |publication-date = 2015
 |page             = 118
 |isbn             = 978-3110443486
 |access-date      = 2015-08-24
 |quote            = [T]he [Austrian] Foreign Ministry [...] and the Military High Command [...] were in agreement that political and military hegemony over Serbia and the Western Balkans was a vital war aim. The Hungarian Prime Minister István Count Tisza, by contrast, was more preoccupied with so-called 'negative war aims', notably warding off hostile Romanian, Italian, and even Bulgarian intervention.
 |date             = 2015-07-01
 |archive-date     = 16 October 2015
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20151016235519/https://books.google.com/books?id=A6AFCgAAQBAJ
 |url-status       = live
}}</ref>

War aims can change in the course of conflict and may eventually morph into "peace conditions"<ref>{{cite book
 |last1            = Haase
 |first1           = Hugo
 |author-link1     = Hugo Haase
 |chapter          = The Debate in the Reichstag on Internal Political Conditions, April 5–6, 1916
 |editor1-last     = Lutz
 |editor1-first    = Ralph Haswell
 |title            = Fall of the German Empire, 1914–1918
 |chapter-url      = https://books.google.com/books?id=cW6mAAAAIAAJ
 |series           = Hoover War Library publications
 |issue            = 1–2
 |publisher        = Stanford University Press
 |publication-date = 1932
 |page             = 233
 |isbn             = 978-0804723800
 |access-date      = 2015-08-25
 |quote            = Gentlemen, when it comes time to formulate peace conditions, it is time to think of another thing than war aims.
 |year             = 1932
 |archive-date     = 25 October 2015
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20151025051415/https://books.google.com/books?id=cW6mAAAAIAAJ
 |url-status       = live
}}</ref> – the minimal conditions under which a state may cease to wage a particular war.