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Although in some cases distinctions may be drawn between these different terms,armistice may also be used in a general sense to encompass these terms. 16412.11.2 Types of Armistice and the Authority to Conclude Armistice Agreements.Armistice agreements have been categorized based on the degree to which they suspendhostilities.An armistice may be general or local. The first suspends the military operations of thebelligerent States everywhere; the second only between certain fractions of the belligerent armiesand within a fixed radius. 165The degree to which the parties wish to suspend hostilities affects what authorities areneeded to conclude the armistice agreement. An armistice agreement must be concluded byauthorities who are competent to agree to and to enforce its terms. Thus, armistices that includemore substantive and expansive terms must be approved by more senior authorities. Forexample, a commander would not have the authority to conclude an armistice agreement thatbinds units or areas that are not under his or her command. Similarly, if an armistice containspolitical terms, it must be made under authorization from the governments concerned or subjectto approval by them. 16612.11.2.1 General Armistice. A general armistice suspends all militaryoperations between opposing forces.manuals on the law of war, the older expression ‘armistice’ seems to be used quite generally to describe agreementswhich in these days go under the name of ‘cease-fires’ or ‘truces’ or ‘suspensions of arms’. Very often when wespeak today of ‘cease-fire’, our predecessors, at least up to the Second World War, would have been inclined to usethe term ‘general armistice’ or ‘local armistice’. These are largely terminological differences and the employmentof one expression or another does not normally of itself have operative legal consequences.”); 1958 UK MANUAL418 note 1 (“Six expressions have in the past been used in the British army to signify a cessation of hostilitiesfalling short of peace: truce, local truce, armistice, cessation of hostilities (as in the Convention made after Majubain 1881), cessation of arms (as in the negotiations preceding the surrender at Saratoga in 1777), and suspension ofarms. Yet they do not appear to have been employed with any exactitude. Moreover, other expressions, such as ‘acease fire for three hours,’ have not been unknown. Neither do other languages follow an exact terminology in thematter; the Germans speak of Waffenruhe and Waffenstillstand, without distinguishing precisely between them. TheFrench instructions distinguish between amistices and suspensions d’armes. It has been found advisable to followthe practice of the more authoritative writers in distinguishing three different kinds of armistice as in the textabove.”).164 See, e.g., WALTER G. HERMES, UNITED STATES ARMY IN THE KOREAN WAR: TRUCE TENT AND FIGHTING FRONT15 footnote 1 (1992) (“For literary reasons, the terms ‘armistice,’ ‘truce,’ and ‘cease-fire’ have been usedinterchangeably throughout this volume. According to the Office of the Judge Advocate General, ‘truce’ signifies atemporary interruption of fighting between local forces for some reason such as the collection of the dead andwounded. The word ‘armistice’ has a similar connotation, but is utilized to cover a temporary cessation of hostilitieson a broader scale. ‘Cease-fire’ applies when all acts of war are halted, bringing about an informal end to the warand stabilizing the situation until formal negotiations can be completed.”).165 HAGUE IV REG. art. 37 (“An armistice may be general or local. The first suspends the military operations of thebelligerent States everywhere; the second only between certain fractions of the belligerent armies and within a fixedradius.”); LIEBER CODE art. 137 (“An armistice may be general, and valid for all points and lines of the belligerents,or special, that is, referring to certain troops or certain localities only.”).166 1956 FM 27-10 (Change No. 1 1976) 483 (“If an armistice contains political terms, it must be made underauthorization from the governments concerned or subject to approval by them.”).848