Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
. "Small wars" would focus on the warfighting dimension. Some things which were part of low intensity conflict--peacekeeping and counterterrorism--would not, to me, be war.

Today, the primary doctrinal and strategy phrases are irregular warfare (IW) or irregular challenges, and stability, security, transition and reconstruction operations (SSTR)
I maintain a dissenting view - I think the 'small wars' label tends to be all encompassing. If one took the USMC manual as an example, it is about far more than 'merely' warfighting. That is the reason why it was written - most military people get the 'warfighting' piece - it is all the other stuff rolled into the label (pol, legal, dev etc) that required amplification and expansion. The rational is evident in C.E Calwell's work.

I think the posts have substantiated the view that our lexicon is problematic and remains contested.