Paper Guide: War & Conflict

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War
I was asked to write 3000 words for the following question. and would like to start doing research but don't have an idea on what to write. I was wondering if someone could discuss a writing plan with me for this topic?

War, in its many forms, is integral to the organisation of human society. It may be managed but never eliminated. 



Write a critical assessment of this assertion, using the second half of the twentieth century as the key to your explanation and argument. In this context, make your own evaluation of Australia's resort to war against Iraq in 2003. Was war, in this case, a valid tool of national policy?

What is war? Define war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

[Note: there is nothing wrong with going to wikipedia in the first instance to get an overall idea of your subject. This reference above points you to a number of sources which you can use to back your point of view. Here is the first reference to it in wikipedia. However, I do NOT recommend that you use this source as an academic basis for your answer. Much of it is background information that you probably will not use in your essay, but you need this background information to understand what you are going to argue. You should use some of the books it refers to - in italics below.

War is any large scale, violent conflict. War grows from the almost universal tribal warfare that has occurred throughout history, to wars between city states, nations, or empires. By extension, the word is now used for any struggle, as in the war on drugs or the war on terror. It was once thought man was the only creature who fought wars, but closer observation of animal life has discovered wars between ant colonies and chimpanzee tribes. A group of combatants and their support is called an army on land, a navy at sea, and air force in the air. Wars may be prosecuted simultaneously in one or more different theatres. Within each theater, there may be one or more consecutive military campaigns. A military campaign includes not only fighting but also intelligence, troop movements, supplies, propaganda, and other components. Continuous conflict is traditionally called a battle, although this terminology is not always applied to conflicts involving aircraft, missiles or bombs alone, in the absence of ground troops or naval forces. A civil war is the use of force to resolve internal differences.
In War Before Civilization, Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, calculates that approximately 90-95% of known societies engaged in at least occasional warfare, and many fought constantly.[1][2][3][4]
A war may begin following an official declaration of war but undeclared wars are common. Any general theory of war must explain not ...