Conventional warfare Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted by using conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation . The forces on each side are well - defined , and fight using weapons that primarily target the opposing army . It is normally fought using conventional weapons , and not with chemical , biological , or nuclear weapons . The general purpose of conventional warfare is to weaken or destroy the opponent ' s military force , thereby negating its ability to engage in conventional warfare . In forcing capitulation , however , one or both sides may eventually resort to unconventional warfare tactics . Formation of the state . The state was first advocated by Plato , then found more acceptance in the consolidation of power under the Roman Catholic Church . European monarchs then gained power as the Catholic Church was stripped of temporal power and was replaced by the divine right of kings . In 1648 , the powers of Europe signed the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the religious violence for purely political governance and outlook , signifying the birth of the modern ' state ' . Within this statist paradigm , only the state and its appointed representatives were allowed to bear arms and enter into war . In fact , war was only understood as a conflict between sovereign states . Kings strengthened this idea and gave it the force of law . Whereas previously any noble could start a war , the monarchs of Europe of necessity consolidated military power in response to the Napoleonic war . The Clausewitzian paradigm . Prussia was one country attempting to amass military power . Carl von Clausewitz , one of Prussia ' s officers , wrote " On War " , a work rooted solely in the world of the state . All other forms of intrastate conflict , such as rebellion , are not accounted for because in theoretical terms , Clausewitz could not account for warfare before the state . However , near the end of his life , Clausewitz grew increasingly aware of the importance of non - state military actors . This is revealed in his conceptions of " the people in arms " which he noted arose from the same social and political sources as traditional inter - state warfare . Practices such as raiding or blood feuds were then labeled criminal activities and stripped of legitimacy . This war paradigm reflected the view of most of the modernized world at the beginning of the 21st century , as verified by examination of the conventional armies of the time : large , high maintenance , technologically advanced armies designed to compete against similarly designed forces . Clausewitz also forwarded the issue of casus belli . While previous wars were fought for social , religious , or even cultural reasons , Clausewitz taught that war is merely " a continuation of politics by other means . " It is a rational calculation in which states fight for their interests ( whether they are economic , security - related , or otherwise ) once normal discourse has broken down . Prevalence . The majority of modern wars have been conducted using the means of conventional warfare . Confirmed use of biological warfare by a nation state has not occurred since 1945 , and chemical warfare has been used only a few times ( the latest known confrontation in which it was utilized being the Iran - Iraq War ) . Nuclear warfare has only occurred once with the United States bombing the Japan ese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 . Decline . The state and Clausewitzian principles peaked in the World War s of the 20th century , but also laid the groundwork for their dilapidation due to nuclear proliferation and the manifestation of culturally aligned conflict . The nuclear bomb was the result of the state perfecting its quest to overthrow its competitive duplicates . Ironically , this development seems to have pushed conventional conflict waged by the state to the sidelines . Were two conventional armies to fight , the loser would have redress in its nuclear arsenal . Thus , no two nuclear powers have yet fought a conventional war directly , with the exception of brief skirmishes between for example , China and Russia in the 1969 Sino - Soviet conflict and between India and Pakistan in the 1999 Kargil War . Replacement . Conventional warfare , waged by the state , has become something not worthy of a declaration of war . Instead , those capable of fighting underneath the nuclear umbrella ( supranational terrorists , corporate mercenaries , ethnic militia s , and so on . ) have now come to dominate the majority of conflict in the post - modern era . These conflicts cannot be explained under the statist system . Samuel Huntington has posited that the world in the early 21st century exists as a system of nine distinct " civilizations , " instead of many sovereign states . These civilizations are delineated along cultural lines , for example , Western , Islamic , Sinic , Hindu , Buddha and so on . In this way , cultures that have long been dominated by the West are reasserting themselves and looking to challenge the status quo . Thus , culture has replaced the state as the locus of war . This kind of civilizational war , in our time as in times long past , occurs where these cultures buffet up against one another . Some high - profile examples are the Pakistan / India conflict or the battles in the Sudan . This sort of war has defined the field since World War II . These cultural forces will not contend with state - based armies in the traditional way . When faced with battalions of tanks , jets , and missiles , the cultural opponent dissolves away into the population . They benefit from the territorially constrained states , being able to move freely from one country to the next , while states must negotiate with other sovereign states . The state ' s spy networks are also severely limited by cultural factors . See also . Contrast :