Talk:Warfare

Difference between war and warfare?
I am brazilian (therefore I speak portuguese), and I noticed that here in the English version of Wikipedia, there are two separate articles for "War" and "Warfare". I also noted that the "War" article have dozens of links to different languages, but the "Warfare" article only have a link to a Slovene article. For me, it indicates that in the majority of the languages, there is no actual difference between the two terms.

So, I would like to know what is the difference (or the differences) between war and warfare.

189.15.238.253 (talk) 21:24, 2 September 2009 (UTC)


 * "War" refers more to the conflict itself, while "Warfare" refers more to the methods in which the conflict is conducted. But the terms are very often interchangeable, depending on context. 173.18.139.165 (talk) 07:06, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Merge to War? (2015)

 * The following discussion is closed. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

It has been proposed several times recently (directly and through bold redirects) that this page should redirect to our article on War, however a proper discussion has not taken place and the merge appears to be controversial. Therefore I am opening this discussion to establish consensus on the matter. As proposer I am neutral but I may comment later. Ivanvector (talk) 16:08, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

Support this article redirected to war between December 2009 and March 2014, when it was restored. During that time, warfare was an alternate title in the lead of war, and rightly so, "warfare" is just the conduct of war, not a different concept. There's nothing here that isn't already covered in war.—indopug (talk) 05:39, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Support: The conduct of a thing and the thing could be separate articles, but that isn't the case here. The lede for Warfare makes no attempt to separate Warfare from War (in fact, War isn't even linked until we get to "see also"). The rest of the article consists mostly of just some short lists of "war-ish" things. Plus, it lacks sources. There is nothing here that merits an article, much less one separate from War. I'd even support a simple delete and making it redirect to War. --A D Monroe III (talk) 21:46, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Support per the above comments and per the Brazilian editor's comments in the above thread; I tend to agree. Just a note: this is a very old page with useful history and should not be deleted outright; merging would leave a redirect in this place with the history attached. I don't think there's actually anything here to merge, so this could just be redirected. Ivanvector (talk) 21:51, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Ivanvector, I believe there is a consensus to merge?—indopug (talk) 17:38, 5 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, I believe so, and I think there is consensus that this can be simply redirected, as anything in this article is already covered better at the target. However, I am just now questioning based on content if this should actually target somewhere else, like outline of war where these concepts are already listed. I'm going to put up the redirect to war but then I may list the redirect at redirects for discussion to solicit more opinions. Ivanvector (talk) 18:54, 5 March 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.