Asymmetric warfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Página 1 de 4

Asymmetric warfare
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Asymmetric warfare is a military term to describe warfare in which the two belligerents are mismatched in
their military capabilities or accustomed methods of engagement such that the militarily diasadvantaged
power must press its special advantages or effectively exploit its enemy's particular weaknesses if they are to
have any hope of prevailing.

In modern context, asymmetric warfare is increasingly considered a component of fourth generation war.
When practiced outside the laws of war, it is often pejoratively characterized as "terrorism."

Contents
1 Roots of the Concept
1.1 Mythos
1.2 Hannibal
2 Post-Soviet incentives for asymmetric war
3 Tactical basis
4 The use of terrain in asymmetric warfare
5 Asymmetric warfare and terrorism
6 War by proxy
7 Not the end of conventional war
8 The 21st century millitary buildup
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

Roots of the Concept

Mythos

As inspiration, the biblical story of David and Goliath is often cited as the inspiration for the triumph of the
weak and the oppressed over the strong and the mighty. David's victory also symbolized the triumph of the
new and advanced versus the old and outdated; his superior planning, skill, and knowledge, defeated Goliath's
dependence on overt force, intimidation, and heavy weapons.

Hannibal

Hannibal attacked Roman forces on the Italian peninsula with a small military force, bolstered by loose
alliances. He successfully used raids and threats to survive a Roman force that at times consisted of as many
as 23 Legions, with another 15 Legions and two Consuls retained in Italy to thwart Hannibal. This expensive
response almost bankrupted the Roman Republic.[1] (http://www.militaryconflict.org/17%20Resources)

Post-Soviet incentives for asymmetric war

The end of World War II established the two most powerful victors, the United States of America and the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) as the two dominant world superpowers. In the rivalry that
arose, small powers, especially those described as comprising the third world were able to seek protection
from one power or the other, or play the powers against each other, to try to achieve parochial goals.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, powers that had been client states of the Soviet Union, states
that were able to gain aid and support from the United States as "bulwarks" against Soviet power, and states

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare 12/10/04
Asymmetric warfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Página 2 de 4

that had successfully played the superpowers against each other found themselves with fewer options to defy
US influence or extract material advantages from either of the former rivals.

Additionally, substantial powers that had been secondary to the two former superpowers, especially the
nations of the European Union and the People's Republic of China have seen an opportunity to become the
counterbalancing superpower to the United States.

These and other motivations have led to a great deal of interest in ways to oppose these superpowers, nearly
always using alternative tactics from which these powers have been accustomed to.

Tactical basis
The tactical success of asymmetric warfare is dependent on at least one of two assumptions:

n If the inferior power is in a position of self-defense; i.e., under attack or occupation, it may be possible
to use unconventional tactics, such as hit-and-run and selective battles where the superior power is
weaker, as an effective means of harassment without violating the Laws of war. Variations of this tactic
succeeded for the North Vietnamese and its allied forces in the Vietnam war, in that the local forces did
not win the war by a straightforward defeat of the US forces, but rather tired out the superior power.
Similar tactics worked for the American colonists in the American revolutionary war and the Soviet
partisans against German occupation on the Eastern Front during World War II. It should be noted,
however, that in these cases, traditional battles were also fought in addition to guerilla tactics.

n If the inferior power is in an aggressive position, however, and/or turns to tactics prohibited by the laws
of war (jus in bello), its success depends on the superior power's refraining from like tactics. For
example, the Law of land warfare prohibits the use of using a flag of truce or clearly marked medical
vehicles as cover for an attack or ambush, but an asymmetric combatant using this prohibited tactic
depends on the superior power's honoring the corresponding rules prohibiting attacking those
displaying a flag of truce or a medical vehicle. Similarly, laws of warfare prohibit combatants using
civilian settlements, populations or facilities as military bases, but when an inferior power uses this
tactic, it depends on the superior power respecting the law that they are violating, and not attacking that
civilian target.

The use of terrain in asymmetric warfare

Terrain can be used as a force multiplier by the weaker force and as a force inhibitor against the stronger
force.

Guerrilla warfare can be classified into two main categories: urban guerrilla warfare and rural guerrilla
warfare. In both cases, guerrillas rely on a friendly population to provide supplies and intelligence. (The
guerrillas must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea. - Mao Tse-Tung.) Rural guerrillas prefer
to operate in regions providing plenty of cover and concealment, especially heavily forested and mountainous
areas. Urban guerrillas, rather than melting into the mountains and jungles, blend into the population and are
dependent on a support base among the people.

For a detailed description of the advantages for the weaker force in the use of built up areas when engaging
asymmetric warfare see the article on urban warfare.

Asymmetric warfare and terrorism

Asymmetric warfare is not synonymous with terrorism; rather, terrorism is sometimes used as a tactic by the
weaker side in an asymmetric conflict. Terrorism is sometimes called asymmetric warfare by advocates for
partisans using terrorist methods to avoid the pejorative connotations of the word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare 12/10/04
Asymmetric warfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Página 3 de 4

War by proxy
Where asymmetric warfare is carried out (generally covertly) by allegedly non-governmental actors who are
connected to or sympathetic to a particular nation's (the "state actor's") interest, it may be deemed war by
proxy. This is typically done to give deniability to the state actor. The deniability can be important to keep the
state actor from being tainted by the actions, to allow the state actor to negotiate in apparent good faith by
claiming they are not responsible for the actions of parties who are merely sympathizers, or to avoid being
accused of belligerent actions or war crimes.

An example of war by proxy was East Germany's covert support for the Red Army Faction (RAF) which was
active from 1968 and carried out a succession of terrorist attacks in West Germany during the 1970s and to a
lesser extent in the 1980s. After German reunification in 1990, it was discovered that the RAF had received
financial and logistic support from the Stasi, the security and intelligence organization of East Germany. It
had also given several RAF terrorists shelter and new identities. It had not been in the interests of either the
RAF or the East Germans to be seen as co-operating. The apologists for the RAF argued that they were
striving for a true socialist (communist) society not the sort that existed in Eastern Europe. The East German
government were involved in Ostpolitik, and it was not in its interest to be caught overtly aiding a terrorist
organisation operating in West Germany. For more details see the History of Germany since 1945.

The war between the mujahadeen and the Red Army during Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the was a classic
asymmetric war. The aid given by US to the mujahadeen during the war was only covert at the tactical level,
the Reagan Administration was only too pleased to be able to tell the world that it was helping the freedom
loving people of Afghanistan. Of all the proxy wars fought by the USA against the USSR during the Cold
War this was the most cost effective and politically successful, as it was the USSR's most humiliating military
defeat, and that defeat was a contributing factor to the implosion of Soviet communism.

Another example of war by proxy is the multi-national presence of Al-Qaida, accused of carrying out the
September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and many other terrorist attacks worldwide. The organization
had been (and may still be) headquartered in Afghanistan, but apparently has members and operatives in many
countries. The argument is proposed that this prevents an aggrieved nation from launching a military attack
within a nation harboring Al-Qaida members since such a nation can argue that Al-Qaida might be within its
borders but is an independent organization which the government does not support, whether or not the
government sympathizes with their cause. The counter-argument is that Al-Qaida members and other
international terror groups do not exist in "disembodied space" or in international territory (i.e., the open seas,
as pirates were claimed to do) but within the borders of a sovereign state, which is responsible to capture or
expel members of such groups, or to allow aggrieved nations to attack them.

Not the end of conventional war

Throughout the 20th century, for small scale conflicts, armies relied increasingly on tactics of the guerilla,
spy, saboteur, provocateur, double agent and even terrorist. This underscored that the advantages of having no
tactical unit organization were greater than the control such units provide:

"Therefore when you induce others to construct a formation while you yourself are formless, then you are
concentrated while the opponent is divided... Therefore the consummation of forming an army is to arrive at
formlessness. When you have no form, undercover espionage cannot find out anything, intelligence cannot
form a strategy." - Sun Tzu (Alternately: "The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the formless.
When it is formless, the deepest spy cannot discern it, nor the wise make plans against it.")

Nonetheless, large scale conflicts remain the province of tightly organized armies, as evidenced most recently,
in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

However, the 2003 invasion of Iraq campaign has now moved into an asymmetric warfare phase as US

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare 12/10/04
Asymmetric warfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Página 4 de 4

alliance and coalition forces battle an insurgency by Iraqi and foreign militants. See 2003 Occupation of Iraq

The 21st century millitary buildup

The Asymmetric warfare has also a direct influence on the current countries strategic buildup. Before the
soviet union collapse, the leading strategic buildup was mainly armored army vs. army combats (involving
mainly armored tanks and artilery) where the leading Methodology was the westren's quality vs. the eastren's
quantity.

The collapse of the soviet union has caused a pardigim shift, where the eastren countries couldn't rely on a
strong supremacy to back them up, and thus today the strategic buildup in the west is manily composed of
strong hi-tech military component (which includes air superiority and advanced long-ranged weapons and less
on tanks and APC) while the east rely's more on gerilla tactics (small ground commando-like units) and
extending current existing millitary platforms instead of buying new.

See also
n Low-intensity operations
n Counter terror

References
n Robert B. Asprey, "War in the Shadows, The Guerilla in History", William Morrow, 1994, ISBN
0688128157 1279 pages. Authoritative survey from Darius the Great to the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan.
n Robert Kaplan, "The Coming Anarchy", The Atlantic Monthly, 1994?
n Barbara Tuchman, "The Proud Tower, Europe 1880-1914" re: anarchist assassins
n UN reports on use of child soldiers as assassins
n Sun Tzu 6 (http://nanguo.chalmers.com.au/~robert/Publishing/China/suntzu/6.html)

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare"

Categories: Warfare | Military terms

n This page was last modified 03:17, 11 Oct 2004.

n All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free
Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare 12/10/04