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A 'defensive war' is one of the causes that justify war by the criteria of the Just War tradition. It means a war where one nation is mainly trying to defend itself from another, as opposed to a war where both sides are trying to invade and conquer each other.

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Reasons

Examples

Reasons

In the view of Carl von Clausewitz and others, defense has the advantages that most fighting is taking place on the defending nation's home terrain, giving it a greater tactical advantage, both in knowledge of the terrain, greater ability to find support from other nations, and in the patriotism inspired by directly defending one's home country. However, it has the downside that it is more limited in what can be achieved, and has the potential to destroy and cripple the defending nation's resources and infrastructure.
Typically the objective is to destroy as much of the invading army as possible so they won't have the resources to continue to attack. Alternatively, the defending nation might be waiting for a more opportune time to attack, such as the defense of Russia during the Eastern Front of World War II, when Russia eventually went on the offensive.

Examples

★ The Darius' Invasions of the Greco-Persian Wars. Greeks were defending their homeland from the Persians.

★ The war between the North and South in the American Civil War, 1961-1965. The South was largely fighting a war of defense, while the North was attacking to forcibly reunite the separated nation.

★ Various invasions in World War II, such as the Invasion of Poland, the Battle of France, and the Battle of Britain and the Japanese Invasion of China were wars of defense.