But this, in fact, is what actual war looks like these days: Sometimes it’s a volley of 300 missiles and drones, and sometimes it is lean, targeted, and carried out covertly. Gone are the days of vast conquering armies and conventional military confrontations between two parties. So long as experts, the government, and the media worry only about a kind of war that is obsolete, it cannot see the war right in front of our faces.
Great article on the evolving face of warfare and how, as long-range and unmanned systems replace on-the-ground and manned conflict, people are assuaged into treating missiles and bombs being lobbed between countries as something “other” than war.
Even then, nations had engaged in total war for thousands of years, a World war is a war involving total war and major combat all over the world with few truly neutral nations. Nato/Japan/Korea/India vs Russia/China engageing in total war would probably count, but any definition kind of needs to not include conflicts like Korea or any of the internal European ones to make sense.