Asymmetric Warfare Tactics Are Used by Weaker Actors Who Are Inca- PATRICK A

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and cyberattacks.Mostofthesestrategiesand Asymmetric Warfare tactics are used by weaker actors who are inca- PATRICK A. MELLO pable or unwilling to engage the enemy on Technische Universität Dresden, Germany equal terms. The use of unconventional methods enables them to overcome their conventional weakness vis-à-vis an opponent who is superior Asymmetric warfare is commonly defined as a intermsoftechnologyandmilitarycapacity.Yet mode of combat where the aims, means, or meth- asymmetryneednotbeassociatedsolelywith odsoftwopartiesinconflictaresubstantively weaker actors. Strong actors can also shift toward dissimilar. Most scholars further assume a gaping asymmetricwarfarewhenthisservestheirneeds. power disparity between the warring parties in This can entail the use of air power or long-range asymmetric conflicts. In this sense, most armed missile attacks against an opponent who cannot conflicts are fully or partially asymmetric. For respond in kind. instance, due to the United States’ overwhelming The study of asymmetric conflict has an estab- military capabilities, any conflict that involves lished pedigree. Nonetheless, the term “asym- this country would by definition be asymmetric metric warfare” gained policy currency only in nature. Likewise, any conflict between state aftertheColdWar,beingfirstmentionedinthe and nonstate actors is characterized by asym- National Security Strategy issued by the Clin- metry. However, a twofold distinction can be ton administration in 1997. In that document made, which separates asymmetry of strength it was asserted that, because of its tremendous from asymmetry of weakness.Theformerrests conventional military arsenal, any future chal- on an actor’s ability to play to its own strengths, lenger to the United States would rather employ most often through superior technology and asymmetric means such as weapons of mass military capability. The latter refers to a strategy destruction, cyberattacks, or terrorism. However, that seeks to exploit an opponent’s weaknesses, the essence of asymmetric warfare can be traced often through indirect and drawn out warfare back to numerous historical examples. One of (Münkler, 2006). While narrow conceptions of the first instances during the modern period was asymmetric warfare largely focus on differences the violent struggle between Spanish partisans in military and economic power, more compre- and a French invasion force under Napoleon, hensive understandings of the term emphasize whose armies occupied Spain from 1808 till 1814. that disparities in political and military strategy, Despite their military inferiority, the Spanish notions of time, and organizational characteris- guerrillas eventually forced the French to with- tics of the parties in conflict are just as important draw from Spain through a series of pinprick as differences in material capabilities. Asymmetric warfare stands in contrast to tradi- attacks, skirmishes, and indirect combat. tional, if somewhat idealized, notions of interstate Asymmetric warfare is further regarded an war;thelatterisrepresentedasaformofarmed essential characteristic of the “new wars” that confrontation between states that is symmetrical emerged during the final decades of the twentieth in the sense that regular armies are deployed for century. The mode of warfare in new wars shows combat, are operating with similar weaponry, and remnants of guerrilla warfare but is closer related are using comparable tactics of warfare. Hence in to approaches of counterinsurgency. Whereas symmetrical wars both sides employ equivalent the classic conception of guerrilla warfare served meansandmethods,evenifonesideisinferior as a model for many rebel and insurgent groups to the other in terms of military capabilities. because of its aim of capturing the “hearts and By contrast, asymmetric warfare entails modes minds” of the local population, counterinsur- of combat such as insurgency and counterinsurgency techniques seek to destabilize and instill gency, partisan and guerrilla warfare, terrorism, fear and hatred among the local population

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology.EditedbyGeorgeRitzer. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos0773 Ritzer wbeos0773.tex V1 - 04/29/2016 5:09 P.M. Page 2

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(Mello, 2010). In this context, Herfried Mün- legitimation of state brutality against nonstate kler suggests that “wars of attrition” constitute actors and of collective forms of punishment a specific type of asymmetric war. This form of against entire populations that become enmeshed conflict shares some characteristics of guerrilla in conflicts between powerful states; these pop- warfare, in the sense that it is a strategy of decel- ulations are being targeted by weaker nonstate eration. It is a response of weaker actors to the actors that use asymmetric means (Winter, 2011). technological, economic, and military superiority of their adversary. Outlasting thus becomes more SEE ALSO: Terrorism; War; War and Develop- important than winning military skirmishes, ment in the Twenty-First Century because success will come through the psycho- logical exhaustion of the enemy. Münkler argues that the postheroic societies in the west tend References to have a low tolerance for military casualties and economic burdens. Thus they plan for short Mello, P. A. (2010) In search of new wars: the debate and intense conflicts. The longer a war lasts, the about a transformation of war. European Journal of higher the probability that a postheroic society International Relations, 16 (2), 297–309. will withdraw its troops (Münkler, 2006). Münkler, H. (2006) Der Wandel des Krieges: Von der Notwithstanding its currency as a catchphrase, Symmetrie zur Asymmetrie [The Transformation of commentators have questioned the analytical War: From Symmetry to Asymmetry],VelbrückWis- utilityoftheconceptofasymmetricwarfare. senschaft, Weilerswist. Indeed, if it is taken merely as a synonym for Winter, Y. (2011) The asymmetric war discourse and its partisan or guerrilla warfare, then the neologism moral economies: a critique. International Theory,3 asymmetric warfare has little new to offer – except (3), 488–514. adding to the conceptual confusion created by aplethoraofsimilartermssuchasirregular, Further Readings unconventional, hybrid, low-intensity,orfourth generation warfare. On the other hand, if asym- metricwarfareisappliedtovirtuallyall forms of Pfanner, T. (2005) Asymmetric warfare from the per- dissimilar configurations of actors, aims, means, spective of humanitarian law and humanitarian ormethodsinwarfare,thenitalsolosesitsdis- action. International Review of the Red Cross,87 tinctive edge. Hence many scholars deem the (857), 149–174. phrase asymmetric warfare unhelpful in analyti- Stepanova, E. (2008) Terrorism in Asymmetrical Con- cal terms. Other scholars formulate a normative flict: Ideological and Structural Aspects, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Stockholm. critique of the prevailing debate on asymmetric Thornton, R. (2007) Asymmetric Warfare: Threat warfare. Here it is argued that, rather than being and Response in the Twenty-First Century,Polity, neutral and descriptive, discourse on asymmet- Cambridge. ric warfare contributes to a rationalization and