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Who is the enemy?
Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia were at a perpetual war. This was no ordinary war. It was going on for as long as anyone could remember. Maybe at least thirty years? Winston vaguely recalled that the war started somewhere in 1950s and the present year being 1984, a big chunk of the population had grown up without seeing a war free world.
The Atomic Wars broke out in late 1940s, just after World War II. Standing against nuclear giants, the smaller countries had no chance of surviving. The ones who made out, did so via the path of totalitariansm - breaking and merging into three superstates: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia.
Oceania was allied with Eastasia and together they fought against Eurasia (Russia + Europe).However, in the 60s, Ocenia switched allegiance - making peace with Eurasia and together fighting against Eastasia.
Winston recalled, sometime during his adulthood, in the 70s, Oceania again changed sides and allied with Eastasia, fighting against Eurasia.
How much of this is actually true? One can't know. When The Party said, Ocenia was at war with Eurasia, they meant, Oceania had ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia. This is no sudden reversal, but rather an accepted way of rewriting records overnight.
The reality existed only in your head. And you'd wonder, how real the story in your head is, if there are absolutely no records to back that up?
It was the Perpetual War. Nobody knew since when it was happening or against whom. Nobody knew if it was even happening or not. The Ministry of Truth ensured that no truth exists. All historical records were subject to revision.
The only fact public knew is what The Party currently told them: that Oceania was at war with Eurasia and had always been at war with Eurasia. This "fact" could change anytime, retrospectively.
The only way to live with this Perpetual War was to make peace with it, aptly reflected in The Party's slogan, "War is Peace".
Economic functionalism
The Party knew a superstate won't survive for long. Humans are easy to divide. But they knew, citizens could remain united as long as everyone had a common enemy to hate.
Thus came the wars and hate week. It unified Oceania's population against an external enemy. Not only that, it justified The Party's totalitarian control and oppression.
Economy becomes a tool to gear this war. Which patriot would care about their luxuries when soldiers are dying protecting their nation? Goldstein's text explained, that primary aim of modern warfare is to use up products of machine without raising general standard of living. Factories churned out weapons instead of consumer goods, ensuring shortages. A permanent crisis born out of this process forced citizens to accept poverty and substandard living as necessary sacrifice. The least a civilian can contribute to the sovereignty of his nation.
Brand names like Victory Gin, Victory Coffee, Victory Towers etc mocked realities of poverties. Artificial scarcities prevented any comfort that might spark dissatisfaction or a demand for better governance.
With such a focus on war, The Party channeled all public dissent and dissatisfaction away from itself, towards a common enemy.....
Forgetfulness as a weapon
....a common enemy nobody cared about. The Party could change the enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia mid Hate Week and public cleanly diverted their hate to the new enemy.
Syme noted, "Who controls the past, controls the future." This was no ordinary observation. Rather this was the core of Party's narrative machine. By constant erasure of history, citizens were forced to accept contradictions. Critical thinking is a crime. Doublethink could get you to the Thought Police. Accept the new reality, retrospectively and ensure your dependence on Party's narrative.
Among others, this process was highlighted in the way Party constantly changed its enemies. It was no longer a question of identifying the external enemy. It was a matter of identifying the internal individuals who could not accept the contradictions in real life. Thought Police did their deed to them.
Doublethink, i.e. holding contrary beliefs simultaneously, was a constant theme in all Party actions. Enemy got changed all of sudden. Victory got announced amid defeat. Chocolate rations claimed to be increased despite being lowered.
Winston in his diary noted that The Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, 'it never happened'.
Illusion of War
The war had blurred line between reality and propaganda. Where is the combat happening? Airstrip One? Where is Airstrip One?
With no way to know if the war was even happening, one could say that it too, existed only in people's heads. Does it make sense in a world where people's are supposed to not trust their own thoughts?
To get around this, The Party ensured the effects of war were always visible, but not the battle itself. One could always see around them damaged buildings, air raid sirens, shortages, defence movement. But never the battle.
The battle was not supposed to be perceived by public intellect. It was to be perceived through lens of Party's narrative. A government speaker could change identity of enemy on the fly during a public rally - posters, telescreen images of Eurasia get torn down and replaced with Eastasia and leader switched war propaganda mid sentence. No individual bats an eyelid.
Did the war actually happen? Julia dismissed frontline reports as fake. Rocket bombs, which were claimed to be dropped by enemy, might have been dropped by Oceania itself to sustain public fear, pushing citizens to cling to Big Brother for protection.
Even if the war happened, the powers were not hurting each other. It was a meaningless joust wasting only lives and resources on both sides. The pointless cycle of state rivalries benefitted nobody except the Party. And it hurted everyone in the society. Even thirty years of war later, nothing was resolved.
If anyone was winning (or losing) in the war, it should have ended. Instead, there continued a cyclical capture and loss of regions. Goldstein described how none of the three powers could truly conquer one another and thus fought only to seize tiny territories rich in minerals or cheap labour. These places provided a bottomless reserve of resources to produce weapons.
However, even if these contested regions didn't exist, the structure of world society and self maintainance would be no different.
The war could very well be futile, existing solely to maintain the status quo. But The Party wants us to believe war to be a real threat. We must believe so.
Ordinary man's tale
War served an important economic function for the party. War was their 'get out of jail' free pass. While the Ministry of Truth ensured there were no economic failures, by rewriting records, the effects of these failures were borne by public. War was the tool to justify these effects.
The Party also shields public against any information coming form outside Oceania. Party described the world beyond Oceania's shores as a bare, hungry and dilapidated place, in a manner to put public into an illusion that despite their hardships, they are in a better situation than others.
Ordinary men are kept exhausted and distracted. Daily life is dominated by work and queues. The little time remaining which one's brain might use to think is claimed by the Party for their various rituals, like the daily Two Minutes Hate, Hate Week, indoctrination lectures, group exercises, compulsory daily redaings from Party literature, morning 'Physical Jerks' and of course, public hangings and executions normalizing violence.
The war today
1984 aside, we are fightings wars that we don't aim to win. The 'war on drugs' or the 'battle against XYZ disease' hasn't ever led us to a conclusion. It frames struggles to unite populations and makes us used to those struggles. It has at best, made the concerned population temporarily satisfied, giving them hope for a daybreak that might never come.
More deeply, Orwell warned that endless war can be used to manipulate and control society. There are wars we are fighting only in our figment of imagination, with no information on the real ground status.