system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Harry Potter] What does a Wizarding War look like?

Conflict, in most societies, is unavoidable. What happens when war breaks out at home? Between different magical nations? Do any of these nations have standing militaries? What do they look like? What sort of personnel do they employ? What are their skills? Have their been significant conflicts besides the First and Second Wizarding Wars or the 70s and 90s?
gpt
The 1st was the rise and fall of Grindelwald and the second was the 1st rise and fall of Voldemort. The battle against Voldemort by Harry Potter and his allies at Hogwarts was technically part of the 3rd Wizarding war.

Magic is complex and intricate.  At first it seems like it should be easy to win a war with magic.  Just say "Accio bad guy!], but as Rufus Scrimgeour said to the Muggle PM, "The problem is, they have magic too."(Thats what the daily prophet claimed he said anyways, they might be paraphrasing it).

The thousand complexities of magic, combined with the very small size of the wizarding community end up making a Wizarding War seem more akin to a muggle cold war.  Wizards acted as clandestine agents and command structures while using proxies for direct conflict.  For example, in the 1st wizarding war(1936-1945), Grindelwald and the Ministry of Magic used muggle governments as proxies in conflict, leading to millions dead or turned into inferni.  In the 2nd wizarding war, magical races across Britain like the giants and the centaurs were used as proxies.

Also like a muggle cold war, conflicts were involved primarily through clandestine agents.  Infiltration was more useful than brute force in killing or capturing enemy wizards, and magic made it all the easier to accomplish.  Any direct battles tended to be in conjunction with proxies and were fairly decisive.  Thus the wars had a flow: 

Part 1: 1 side would take control of an area and lock it down, using wards, counter measures, ect to hunt for enemy agents.

Part 2:  Enemy agents would attempt to infiltrate the area and find weaknesses to the control structure of the controlling side.

Part 3: If those agents succeeded in identifying the weak points without getting caught/killed, pressure would be apllied to those points in order to break control of the area.  If the agents succeeded, then they would be the controlling side and the battle would be put back to part 1.  Due to the nature of magic, often the pressure point would be a certain individual, who's death or capture would mean a collapse of the command and control structure and the powerful magics that held the controlling side together.

Sometimes Part 3 would involve a large battle, sometimes part 1 would involve using proxy armies to clear the area, but the result was the same.  Wizards kill each other, or get other races to kill each other, decide who should be in power, and then go back to screwing over us goblins.