Total War (Wikipedia)

2022-03-20

Modern war involves sanctions, which impact civilian parts of the economy to a substantial degree. Some open source code is being modified to cause additional damage and disruption in areas associated with the war, but of course there is collateral damage even beyond the intended civilian targets.

This reminds me of the idea of "total war". Wikipedia's summary:

Total war is warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combatant needs.

I think total war is likely much more disruptive than the open-source sabotage we're seeing now, but it seems like a related concept somehow; rather than trying to constrain the scope of the conflict, the aim seems to enlarge it, with the hope that doing so can avoid a catastrophic escalation. This seems a bit like a loose cannon to me: lots of power unleashed, but little control over it. Is there a term for this kind of sabotage of largely civilian infrastructure to support a war effort? The more I read about it, the more murky the issue becomes.

Total War (Wikipedia)