Police action

Military action undertaken without a declaration of war

In security studies and international relations, a police action is a military action undertaken without a formal declaration of war. In the 21st century, the term has been largely supplanted by "counter-insurgency". Since World War II, formal declarations of war have been rare, especially military actions conducted by the Global North during the Cold War. Rather, nations involved in military conflict sometimes describe the conflict by fighting the war under the auspices of a "police action" to show that it is a limited military operation, different from total war.

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