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Belonging To or Recognized As A State at War and Protected by and Subject To The Laws of War

Asymmetrical warfare refers to unconventional military strategies used by weaker forces against stronger opponents. It occurs when adversaries have significantly different military capabilities. Examples include guerrilla warfare between lightly armed insurgents and conventional armies, terrorist tactics targeting civilians, and potential warfare between nuclear and non-nuclear states. The fundamental aim is to exploit an opponent's weaknesses by striking soft targets like civilians. Asymmetrical warfare can take place at operational, military-strategic, and political-strategic levels using different forms of asymmetry in power, means, methods, values, and timeframes. Transnational conflicts and terrorism are also characterized by unpredictability in determining when hostilities begin and end.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
82 views2 pages

Belonging To or Recognized As A State at War and Protected by and Subject To The Laws of War

Asymmetrical warfare refers to unconventional military strategies used by weaker forces against stronger opponents. It occurs when adversaries have significantly different military capabilities. Examples include guerrilla warfare between lightly armed insurgents and conventional armies, terrorist tactics targeting civilians, and potential warfare between nuclear and non-nuclear states. The fundamental aim is to exploit an opponent's weaknesses by striking soft targets like civilians. Asymmetrical warfare can take place at operational, military-strategic, and political-strategic levels using different forms of asymmetry in power, means, methods, values, and timeframes. Transnational conflicts and terrorism are also characterized by unpredictability in determining when hostilities begin and end.

Uploaded by

Ana Maria Rusu
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© © All Rights Reserved
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ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE

= unconventional strategies and tactics adopted by a force when the military capabilities


of belligerent(belonging to or recognized as a state at war and protected by and subject to the
laws of war) powers are not simply unequal but are so significantly different that they cannot
make the same sorts of attacks on each other.

=examples: 1. Guerrilla warfare, occurring between lightly armed partisans and a


conventional army. Guerrilla warfare, also spelled guerilla warfare, type of warfare fought
by irregulars in fast-moving, small-scale actions against orthodox military and police forces
and, on occasion, against rival insurgent forces, either independently or in conjunction with a
larger political-military strategy

Over the centuries the practitioners of guerrilla warfare have been called rebels, irregulars,
insurgents, partisans, and mercenaries.

The stew of animosities was further seasoned by ethnic and religious rivalries, a factor that
helps to explain why guerrilla warfare continues to be fought in a large number of countries
today. In some instances it has assumed a universal character under the banner of religious
fundamentalism. The most prominent practitioners of this type were the Islamist groups al-
Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; also called ISIS). 

2.  Terrorist tactics, such as hijackings and suicide bombings, because they


tend to involve a smaller, weaker group attacking a stronger one and also because attacks on
civilians are by definition one-way warfare.

3. War between a country that is both able and willing to use nuclear


weapons and a country that is not would be another example of asymmetrical warfare.

The fundamental aim of asymmetrical warfare is to find a way round the adversary’s military
strength by discovering and exploiting, in the extreme, its weaknesses. Weaker parties have
realized that, particularly in modern societies, to strike “soft targets” causes the greatest
damage. Consequently, civilian targets frequently replace military ones.

In a sense, all warfare is asymmetrical as there are never identical belligerents.


Asymmetric warfare can be fought at different levels and can take different forms. There is an
operational level (including ruses, covert operations, perfidy, terrorism, etc.), a military
strategic level (guerrilla warfare, massive retaliation, Blitzkrieg, etc.) and a political strategic
level (moral or religious war, clash of cultures). The different forms include asymmetry of
power, means, methods, organization, values and time.

One of the characteristic features of transnational wars and international terrorism is


that they are unpredictable and that it is generally difficult to discern the beginning and the
end of these hostilities. The al-Qaeda structure was not only a centralised organization, but it
also encouraged bottom-up initiatives and decentralisation. The organization has promoted a
global “jihad”, seeking to motivate individuals and cells or existing groups worldwide to join
its “just war” and to define their local “jihad” as part of a universal fight.
International law basically premises a distinction between the reasons for waging war
and warfare itself. This distinction was made in the late Middle Ages and the two areas of law
were called jus ad bellum, the right to wage war, and jus in bello, the law governing the
conduct of war. Today this distinction is still a crucial and decisive factor, without which
there would be no chance of securing respect for international humanitarian law.

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