brushfire

noun

1. A large fire in a scrubland or prairie, as opposed to a forest fire, which occurs in forests.
2. (attributive, figuratively)A war that arises suddenly and is limited in scope or area.

   “It may be a brushfire operation or an operation on the scale of the Korean war; it will certainly not involve the home territories of the United States and Soviet Russia as theaters of hostilities.”

   “I grant you it may not be in the actual application of mechanical devices, but if you have the volume to have supremacy in a major war it is obvious you would have the volume to take care of a brushfire war.”

   “If a brushfire conflict does threaten superpower interests, or the general peace, a superpower may intervene in an unusual way.”