#but they're def def DEF not analogous to an asymmetric war like the revolutionary one or an early-modern like war of 1812

[agoddamn]

If you hardcore wanted to theorize Nart warfare:

I think the bijuu (so, modern Nart) map well to the nuclear era. Bijuu have power that normal humans can't match, therefore nukes. It works. This era is characterized by less "direct" war but also more "low-level" war... it's so dangerous for a country to actually use a nuke these days, because every other county will go "holy fuck that guy used a nuke we need to take him out before he turns the planet into a desert"

The way to flex in this era is actually...by accumulating more nukes than anyone else. The philosophy goes: if you have lots of nukes, your nuke stash can't be destroyed in one fell swoop. The most intimidating guy on the board is therefore the one with the most nukes, because he can retaliate faster than you can destroy all his stashes.

Ironically this maps poorly to Naruto itself in a mechanical sense because Naruto has Plot Powers dictating the kyuubi and Naruto as the strongest for Main Character reasons. But, y'know, if you're looking for an actually logical take on the whole thing

Warring States era is obviously characterized by good old-fashioned pseudo-medieval throwing a bunch of guys at each other. A distinct lack of huge-scale jutsu. Let's say, maybe, Napoleonic War? Or Charlemagne era? Hashirama with the mokuton was essentially the same as the gatling gun in WW1

That leaves the first/second shinobi world wars to be analogous to...regardless of the metaphor I just used, WW1. WW1 was characterized by technological leaps and a bloodbath of trying to adapt to it. It makes sense for ninja villages recently post-unification to have a bunch of sudden technological jumps

The third shinobi world war is...actually that also seems analogous to WW1, cause-wise.

WW2 is largely characterized by its atrocities and its technological revolutions (Navajo code talking, atomic bombs, fake tank spyfare) and I don't think it maps very well to any of the Nart wars, actually. Well, that's partly because we know so vanishingly little about the shinobi world wars...

We did have both Kannabi Bridge and Minato driving off a thousand guys, which suggests a shift to the modern system of warfare where technological superiority rather than human numbers are what determines victory. Mobility is the key to the modern system, and that's pretty much Minato's jam.