Interstellar war


An interstellar war involves a warfare between combatants from different planetary systems. The concept provides a common plot device in science fiction, especially in the space opera subgenre. In contrast, the term intergalactic war refers to war between combatants from different galaxies; interplanetary war refers to war between combatants from different planets of the same solar system.

Likelihood

argued that if humans ever spread to other planetary systems, the actual likelihood of interstellar war would be low due to the immense distances –interstellar war would require a vastly greater investment of time and resources than present-day intraplanetary wars involve. By contrast, Robert Freitas argued that the energy expenditure required for interstellar war would be trivial from the viewpoint of a Type II or Type III civilisation on the Kardashev scale.

Interstellar war in fiction

The earliest fictional references appear to deal with interplanetary, not interstellar war. Now that the other planets of the solar system are believed to be devoid of intelligent life, sci-fi writers generally posit some form of faster-than-light drive in order to facilitate interstellar war. Writers such as Larry Niven have developed plausible interplanetary conflict based on human colonization of the asteroid belt and outer planets by means of technologies utilizing the laws of physics as currently understood.