Military Victory and Durable Settlement Are Different Outcomes
A war can end without every dispute that produced it being resolved. It can end through military victory, negotiation, exhaustion, outside intervention, leadership change, partition, or a combination of these. Those endings are not interchangeable.
The word success can hide several outcomes. Did one side win militarily? Did organized violence stop? Did civilians become safer? Did the parties reach a political arrangement? Did conflict recur years later? Did the settlement protect rights and reduce incentives for renewed violence?
A single ending can look successful under one measure and damaging under another. Military victory may change the balance of force. A negotiated arrangement may depend on security guarantees, credible institutions, implementation, and what the parties do afterward. Neither route supplies a universal rule for durable peace.
The consequences depend on the conflict, the objectives, what follows the fighting, and which human costs are included in the measure.
Military victory is an outcome. Durable political settlement is another. Good judgment begins by keeping them separate.