THEORETICAL ISSUES OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF MILITARY CONFLICTS

The article is devoted to the issues of classification of military conflicts. First, the term military conflict and its types: war and armed conflicts are clarified. Then, a classification of military conflicts is carried out according to various criteria: the purpose of the conflict, theater, scale, forces and means involved, conflict spectrum, etc. The priority in the classification is given to typology, since the problem of systematics and taxonomy of conflicts remains undeveloped. Typology classifies conflicts according to their main characteristics. In modern times, the leadership in this direction undoubtedly belongs to Western, especially US researchers. This is explained by the fact that after the Cold War, the US Armed Forces used more military force in various hot regions of the world. Typology cannot be considered a completely stable type of classification. There are many controversial points. As an example, it is enough to note the differences in the views of Western and Russian researchers on the classification of war generations. In general, it is difficult to say that a perfect classification system will be created until the systematics and taxonomy of military conflicts are developed.