If the ultimate goal of a war is to force one nation or group to surrender to another through military might
I don't think it is the ultimate goal of war, that's overly restricting the definition based on, as I said, this conception of war as only being these wide-ranging conflicts (really, what "total war" refers to). Many wars have been fought purely over control of land or resources, where surrender or government toppling was never the goal.
war, noun, ˈwȯr
(1): a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations