# Total War "Total war" is the military-and-political-strategic doctrine designating a mode of warfare in which the conflict's prosecution involves substantially-comprehensive mobilization of a society's economic, technological, ideological, social, and political resources — distinct from limited or proportional warfare in which mobilization-scope is substantially-bounded. The doctrine has substantial 19th-century antecedents (Carl von Clausewitz's *On War* discusses absolute-war framework; the [[American Civil War]] operated substantially as total-war prosecution; the Franco-Prussian War substantially-deployed mass-mobilization framework), but the explicit *totaler Krieg* theoretical articulation derives from Erich Ludendorff's 1935 book of that title. Ludendorff — the WWI German military leadership figure and subsequent Weimar-era political-figure — substantially-articulated the framework as theoretical-foundation for what he considered the necessary German military-and-political mobilization for future wars. The word's analytical interest is its **operational-influence** across multiple substantially-different strategic-thinking traditions: - **WWII Allied-and-Axis powers' war-prosecution** substantially-operated within total-war frameworks. Both Allied (US, UK, USSR) and Axis (Germany, Japan, Italy) powers substantially-deployed comprehensive mobilization of economic, technological, ideological, social, and political resources in war-prosecution. - **Cold-War strategic thought** substantially-extended total-war analytical-frameworks to nuclear-war scenarios. The mutually-assured-destruction (MAD) framework substantially-incorporated total-war analytical-vocabulary; the broader Cold-War-strategic-thought infrastructure operated substantially within total-war analytical-vocabulary. - **Russian-strategic-thinking** has substantially-incorporated total-war analytical-frameworks into contemporary [[Non-Linear Warfare]] doctrinal-development, [[Hybrid Warfare]] doctrinal-development, and adjacent contemporary Russian-strategic-doctrinal infrastructure. The contemporary Russian-strategic-thinking substantially-extends total-war concepts to information-and-cognitive domains. - **Contemporary American national-security-policy thinking** has substantially-deployed total-war analytical-vocabulary in the post-2017 "strategic-competition" doctrinal framework. The 2017 National Security Strategy and adjacent contemporary doctrinal-development substantially-incorporate total-war analytical-vocabulary in characterizing contemporary US-vs-China and US-vs-Russia strategic-competition environments. ## Theoretical Framework Ludendorff's *Der totale Krieg* (1935) substantially-articulates the framework through several principal theoretical-claims: **Comprehensive mobilization requirement.** Modern warfare requires comprehensive mobilization of a society's economic-technological-ideological-social-political resources. The non-comprehensive-mobilization alternative is substantially-non-viable in modern-warfare contexts. **Strategic-political integration.** Military-strategic and political-strategic infrastructure must operate as integrated framework. The traditional military-vs-civilian operational-distinction is substantially-non-viable in modern-warfare contexts. **Ideological-mobilization centrality.** Ideological mobilization of the population is substantially-central to total-war prosecution. The non-ideologically-mobilized alternative is substantially-non-viable. **Anti-democratic political-framework.** Ludendorff's specific theoretical-articulation substantially-incorporates anti-democratic political-framework — the framework substantially-argues that democratic-political-decision-making is incompatible with total-war prosecution-requirements. The framework substantially-aligns with the broader Weimar-era anti-democratic political-tradition that subsequently substantially-informed Nazi political-thinking. **Wartime-vs-peacetime distinction erosion.** The framework substantially-erodes the traditional wartime-vs-peacetime political-organizational distinction. The framework substantially-argues that *total war must be perpetually-prepared-for* even in nominal-peacetime conditions. ## Contemporary Deployment The contemporary deployment of total-war analytical-vocabulary operates across multiple substantially-distinct registers: **Russian-strategic-doctrinal deployment.** Russian-strategic-doctrinal infrastructure substantially-deploys total-war analytical-vocabulary in characterizing contemporary Russian-vs-NATO strategic-competition environment. The [[Non-Linear Warfare]] / [[Hybrid Warfare]] / [[Fifth World War]] doctrinal-vocabulary cluster substantially-operates within total-war analytical-framework. **American strategic-doctrinal deployment.** Contemporary American strategic-doctrinal infrastructure (post-2017 National Security Strategy, broader contemporary DoD-strategic-policy infrastructure) substantially-deploys total-war analytical-vocabulary in characterizing contemporary US-vs-China and US-vs-Russia strategic-competition environments. The "great-power competition" framing substantially-incorporates total-war analytical-vocabulary. **Chinese strategic-doctrinal deployment.** Contemporary Chinese strategic-doctrinal infrastructure (the "Three Warfares" doctrine — public-opinion-warfare, psychological-warfare, legal-warfare; the broader contemporary PLA-doctrinal-development) substantially-deploys analytical-vocabulary substantially-equivalent to total-war framework. **Right-coded American political-rhetorical deployment.** Contemporary American right-coded political-rhetorical infrastructure substantially-deploys total-war analytical-vocabulary in characterizing contemporary domestic-political environment — particularly in framing the broader American culture-war as substantively-equivalent-to-warfare requiring comprehensive-political-mobilization. The framing substantially-overlaps with [[Long March Through the Institutions]] / [[Cultural Marxism]] / [[Great Replacement Theory]] adjacent rhetorical-vocabulary clusters. ## Why It Matters for the KB **Foundational strategic-doctrinal vocabulary documentary anchor.** Total war is one of the principal foundational strategic-doctrinal vocabulary items. Tracking the term is essential to engaging with broader contemporary strategic-doctrinal analytical-literature. **Russian-strategic-doctrinal contemporary deployment analytical resource.** Russian-strategic-doctrinal deployment of total-war analytical-vocabulary is one of the principal documentary cases of contemporary Russian-strategic-doctrinal infrastructure. Tracking the deployment is useful for engaging with contemporary Russian-strategic-doctrinal analytical-literature. **American strategic-doctrinal contemporary deployment analytical resource.** American strategic-doctrinal deployment of total-war analytical-vocabulary is one of the principal contemporary American national-security-policy analytical-vocabulary items. Tracking the deployment is useful for engaging with contemporary American national-security-policy literature. **Right-coded American political-rhetorical deployment analytical resource.** The contemporary American right-coded political-rhetorical deployment of total-war analytical-vocabulary provides one of the principal documentary cases of strategic-doctrinal vocabulary's domestication into political-rhetorical infrastructure. Tracking the deployment is useful for understanding the broader contemporary American political-rhetorical infrastructure. ## See Also - [[Non-Linear Warfare]] — the contemporary Russian-strategic-doctrinal descendant - [[Hybrid Warfare]] — adjacent contemporary strategic-doctrinal framework - [[Fifth World War]] — adjacent contemporary Russian-strategic-doctrinal framework - [[Fourth Generation Warfare]] — adjacent contemporary strategic-doctrinal framework - [[Forever Wars]] — adjacent contemporary American strategic-political-rhetorical framework - [[Information Warfare]]