War and warfare

[irmamar]

Is there any difference between war and warfare?

Thanks.

[Perikles]

They overlap. Have a look here. You would never say

They declared warfare
They went to warfare
They waged warfare against poverty

And yet:

They became rich through warfare (e.g. selling arms)


And yet, they can mean the same.

[hermit]

Just right, Perikles - a further distinction might be that a state of war
entails those military arts employed in warfare...

[irmamar]

I don't know if I understand clearly the difference between them . More or less I understand 'war' as the conflict itself and 'warfare' as the elements that enclose or surround the war. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to distinguish between them when writing. May I use 'war' instead of 'warfare' when talking about the world wars?

[ROBINDESBOIS]

Vey interesting.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

May I use 'war' instead of 'warfare' when talking about the world wars?

Yes - war is far more likely to be correct. In fact I can't think of a case where it would actually be wrong, even where warfare might be better.

[irmamar]

Your opinion helps me a lot. Thanks.

[poli]

Warfare significa batalla (el trabajo de guerra) Cuando guerra significa batalla su significado es igual:

Examples:
Although the country was a war, the batallion has not yet been engaged
in warfare.

If I must use warfare (If I must go to battle) to get what I want, I will.

[Awaken]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I don't know if I understand clearly the difference between them . More or less I understand 'war' as the conflict itself and 'warfare' as the elements that enclose or surround the war. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to distinguish between them when writing. May I use 'war' instead of 'warfare' when talking about the world wars?

I think your understanding is good irmamar.

We are at war with Iraq.
Germany and Japan lost the 2nd World War.
The US declared war.

Those are all specific conflicts. When talking about world wars or the World Wars (I and II), in general "war" is a safe bet.

The US is afraid of the enemy engaging in biological warfare.
Iraq's chemical warfare capability is increasing.

Hopefully that helps, but I think your understanding is correct. But the meaning of both words overlap for sure.

[JPablo]

Yet, there are nations developing "psychological warfare" or "chemical warfare".

(You would not say "developing psychological war" although you could have nations engages in a chemical war...)

Additionally Leo Tolstoy is "War and Peace", not "Warfare and Peace"...

I don't know I guess there is Biological warfare, Financial warfare... and there is "a faring forth to war" (which is the derivation of "warfare" and now that I think about it it is rather "edifying"... in terms of understanding the concept and difference... even if wars are commonly the antithesis of anything edifying...) (Except the economies of the guys behind the scenes making big bucks with the weapons industry, of course...)