WordNet
n. a war whose objective is less than the unconditional defeat of the enemy
Wikipedia
The belligerents participating in limited war do not expend all of the resources at their disposal, whether human, industrial, agricultural, military, natural, technological, or otherwise in a specific conflict. This may be to preserve those resources for other purposes, or because it might be more difficult for the participants to use all of an area's resources rather than part of them. Limited war is the opposite concept to total war.
Usage examples of "limited war".
If we're already involved in even a limited war on top, someone could intercept that signal of ours and have our position in no time.
I'll assume the brighter side, the possibility of a limited war and only partial retrogression -- Bradbury is perhaps too pessimistic -- but to avoid the topic of war and cultural retrogression, as some schools of science fiction writers and editors have done, is unrealistic and downright irresponsible.