As far as I know, wars have to be officially allowed before anyone can declare war etc. This means that until we announce it, nobody can wage war (mainly because we don't have a set procedure).
The general idea was that a war would be won by way of inactivity of your opponent. In other words, you say you attack then if nobody within that nation can respond to your attack within a certain timeframe then they lose. If they respond quickly, they defend successfully. They can make a response attack at the same time if they so wish, or wait until later. We never came up with a timeframe or confirmed anything, though.
