Asymmetric warfare Asymmetric warfare is war between belligerent s whose relative military power differs significantly , or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly . " Asymmetric warfare " can describe a conflict in which the resources of two belligerents differ in essence and in the struggle , interact and attempt to exploit each other ' s characteristic weaknesses . Such struggles often involve strategies and tactics of unconventional warfare , the weaker combatants attempting to use strategy to offset deficiencies in quantity or quality . Such strategies may not necessarily be militarized . This is in contrast to " symmetric warfare " , where two powers have similar military power and resources and rely on tactics that are similar overall , differing only in details and execution . The term is frequently used to describe what is also called " guerrilla warfare " , " insurgency " , " terrorism " , " counterinsurgency " , and " counterterrorism " , essentially violent conflict between a formal military and an informal , less equipped and supported , undermanned but resilient opponent . Definition and differences . The popularity of the term dates from Andrew J . R . Mack ' s 1975 article " Why Big Nations Lose Small Wars " in " World Politics " , in which " asymmetric " referred simply to a significant disparity in power between opposing actors in a conflict . " Power , " in this sense , is broadly understood to mean material power , such as a large army , sophisticated weapons , an advanced economy , and so on . Mack ' s analysis was largely ignored in its day , but the end of the Cold War sparked renewed interest among academics . By the late 1990s , new research building on Mack ' s insights was beginning to mature , and , after 2004 , the U . S . military began once again to seriously consider the problems associated with asymmetric warfare . Discussion since 2004 has been complicated by the tendency of academic and military communities to use the term in different ways , and by its close association with guerrilla warfare , insurgency , terrorism , counterinsurgency , and counterterrorism . Military authors tend to use the term " asymmetric " to refer to the indirect nature of the strategies many weak actors adopt , or even to the nature of the adversary itself ( e . g . , " asymmetric adversaries can be expected to . . . " ) rather than to the correlation of forces . Academic authors tend to focus more on explaining the puzzle of weak actor victory in war : if " power , " conventionally understood , conduces to victory in war , then how is the victory of the " weak " over the " strong " explained ? Key explanations include ( 1 ) strategic interaction ; ( 2 ) willingness of the weak to suffer more or bear higher costs ; ( 3 ) external support of weak actors ; ( 4 ) reluctance to escalate violence on the part of strong actors ; ( 5 ) internal group dynamics and ( 6 ) inflated strong actor war aims . Asymmetric conflicts include both interstate and civil war s , and over the past two hundred years have generally been won by strong actors . Since 1950 , however , weak actors have won a majority of all asymmetric conflicts . Strategic basis . In most conventional warfare , the belligerents deploy forces of a similar type and the outcome can be predicted by the quantity of the opposing forces or by their quality , for example better command and control of their forces ( c3 ) . There are times where this is not true because the composition or strategy of the forces makes it impossible for either side to close in battle with the other . An example of this is the standoff between the continental land forces of the French army and the maritime forces of the United Kingdom ' s Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . In the words of Admiral Jervis during the campaigns of 1801 , " I do not say , my Lords , that the French will not come . I say only they will not come by sea " , and a confrontation that Napoleon Bonaparte described as that between the elephant and the whale . Tactical basis . The tactical success of asymmetric warfare is dependent on at least some of the following assumptions : Use of terrain . Terrain can be used as a force multiplier by the smaller force and as a force inhibitor against the larger force . Such terrain is called difficult terrain . The contour of the land is an aid to the army ; sizing up opponents to determine victory , assessing dangers and distance . " Those who do battle without knowing these will lose . " ― Sun Tzu , " The Art of War " The guerrillas must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea . ― Mao Zedong . A good example of this type of strategy is the Battle of Thermopylae , where the narrow terrain of a defile was used to funnel the Persian forces , who were numerically superior , to a point where they could not use their size as an advantage . For a detailed description of the advantages for the weaker force in the use of built - up areas when engaging in asymmetric warfare , see the article on urban warfare . 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 crime s . If proof emerges of the true extent of the state actor ' s involvement , this strategy can backfire ; for example see Iran - contra and Philip Agee . Asymmetric warfare and terrorism . There are two different viewpoints on the relationship between asymmetric warfare and terrorism . In the modern context , asymmetric warfare is increasingly considered a component of fourth generation warfare . When practiced outside the laws of war , it is often defined as terrorism , though rarely by its practitioners or their supporters . For example , terrorists often use women and children as human shields , which practise is not considered either moral or part of traditional symmetrical warfare . The other view is that asymmetric warfare does not coincide with terrorism . The use of terror by the much lesser Mongol forces in the creation and control of the Mongol empire could be viewed as asymmetric warfare . The other is the use of state terrorism by the superior Nazi forces in the Balkans , in an attempt to suppress the resistance movement . Examples of asymmetric warfare . The American Revolutionary War . From its initiation , the American Revolutionary War was , necessarily , a showcase for asymmetric techniques . In the 1920s , Harold Murdock of Boston attempted to solve the puzzle of the first shots fired on Lexington Green , and came to the suspicion that the few score militia men who gathered before sunrise to await the arrival of hundreds of well - prepared British soldiers were sent specifically to provoke an incident which could be used for propaganda purposes . The return of the British force to Boston following the search operations at Concord was subject to constant skirmishing , using partisan forces gathered from communities all along the route , making maximum use of the terrain ( particularly trees and stone field walls ) to overcome the limitations of their weapons - musket s with an effective range of only about 50 – 70 metres . Throughout the war , skirmishing tactics against British troops on the move continued to be a key factor in Rebel success ; however , they may also have encouraged the occasional incidents , particularly in the later stages , where British troops used alleged surrender violations as a justification for killing large numbers of captives ( e . g . , Waxhaw and Groton Heights ) . Another feature of the long march from Concord was the urban warfare technique of using buildings along the route as additional cover for sniper s , which provoked the logical response from the British force — destruction of the buildings . When revolutionary forces forced their way into Norfolk , Virginia , and used waterfront buildings as cover for shots at British vessels out in the river , the response of destruction of those buildings was ingeniously used to the advantage of the rebels , who encouraged the spread of fire throughout the largely Loyalist town , and spread propaganda blaming it on the British . Shortly afterwards they destroyed the remaining houses , on the grounds that they might provide cover for British soldiers . On the subject of propaganda , it should be borne in mind that , contrary to the impression given in the popular American film " The Patriot " , British forces never adopted a popular response to partisan - style asymmetric warfare — retribution massacres of groups selected on a semi - random basis from the population at large . The rebels also adopted a form of asymmetric sea warfare , by using small , fast vessels to avoid the Royal Navy , and capturing or sinking large numbers of merchant ships ; however the British responded by issuing letters of marque permitting private armed vessels to undertake reciprocal attacks on enemy shipping . John Paul Jones became notorious in Britain for his expedition from France in the little sloop of war " Ranger " in April 1778 , during which , in addition to his attacks on merchant shipping , he made two landings on British soil . The effect of these raids , particularly when coupled with his capture of the Royal Navy ' s " HMS Drake " — the first such success in British waters , but not Jones ' s last — was to force the British government to increase resources for coastal defence , and to create a climate of fear among the British public which was subsequently fed by press reports of his preparations for the 1779 " Bonhomme Richard " mission . From 1776 , the conflict turned increasingly into a proxy war on behalf of France , following a strategy proposed in the 1760s but initially resisted by the idealistic young King Louis XVI , who came to the throne at the age of 19 a few months before Lexington . France also encouraged proxy wars against the British in India , but ultimately drove itself to the brink of state bankruptcy by entering the war ( s ) directly , on several fronts throughout the world . 20th century asymmetric warfare . Second Boer War . Asymmetric warfare featured prominently during the Second Boer War . After an initial phase , which was fought by both sides as a conventional war , the British captured Johannesburg , the Boers ' largest city , and captured the capitals of the two Boer Republics . The British then expected the Boers to accept peace as dictated by the victors in the traditional European way . However instead of capitulating , the Boers fought a protracted guerrilla war . Between twenty and thirty thousand Boer commando s were only defeated after the British brought to bear four hundred and fifty thousand troops , about ten times as many as were used in the conventional phase of the war . During this phase the British introduced internment in concentration camp s for the Boer civilian population and also implemented a scorched earth policy . Later , the British began using blockhouses built within machine gun range of one another and flanked by barbed wire to slow the Boers ' movement across the countryside and block paths to valuable targets . Such tactics eventually evolved into today ' s counter insurgency tactics . The Boer commando raids deep into the Cape Colony , which were organized and commanded by Jan Smuts , resonated throughout the century as the British and others adopted and adapted the tactics used by the Boer commandos in later conflicts . After World War II . Cold War . The end of World War II established the two most powerful victors , the United States of America ( USA , or just the United States ) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR , or just the Soviet Union ) as the two dominant world superpowers . Cold War examples of proxy wars . In Southeast Asia , specifically Vietnam , the Viet Cong and other communist insurgencies engaged in asymmetrical guerilla warfare with France , at first , then , later , the United States during the period of the Vietnam War . Likewise , the war between the mujahideen and the Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has been claimed as the source of the term " asymmetric warfare " , although this war occurred years after Mack wrote of " asymmetric conflict , " it is notable that the term became well known in the West only in the 1990s . The aid given by the U . S . to the mujahadeen during the war was only covert at the tactical level , the Reagan Administration told the world that it was helping the " freedom - loving people of Afghanistan " . This proxy war was aided by many countries including the USA against the USSR during the Cold War . It was considered cost effective and politically successful , as it gave the USSR a military defeat which was a contributing factor to its collapse . 21st century . Israel / Palestinians . The battle between the Israelis and some Palestinian organizations ( such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad ) is a classic case of asymmetric warfare . Israel has a powerful army , air force and navy , while the Palestinian organisations have no access to large - scale military equipment with which to conduct operations ; instead , they utilize asymmetric tactics , such as : small gunfights , cross - border sniping , rocket attacks , and suicide bombing . Sri Lanka . The Sri Lankan Civil War , which raged on and off from 1983 to 2009 , between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ) saw large - scale asymmetric warfare . The war started as an insurgency and progressed to a large - scale conflict with the mixture of guerrilla and conventional warfare . The LTTE pioneered the use of suicide bombing and perfected it with the use of male / female suicide bombers both on and off battlefield ; use of explosive - filled boats for suicide attacks on military shipping ; use of light aircraft targeting military installations . Kashmir . Pakistan claims Kashmir for itself . Pakistan has engaged India in a proxy war since 1988 . Iraq . The victory by the US - led coalition forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq , demonstrated that training , tactics and technology can provide overwhelming victories in the field of battle during modern conventional warfare . After Saddam Hussein ' s regime was removed from power , the Iraq campaign moved into a different type of asymmetric warfare where the coalition ' s use of superior conventional warfare training , tactics and technology were of much less use against continued opposition from the various partisan groups operating inside Iraq . Syria . Much of the 2012 - 2013 Syrian civil war has been fought asymmetrically . The Syrian National Coalition along with the Mujahideen and Kurdish Democratic Union Party , has been engaging with the forces of the Syrian government through asymmetric means . The conflict has seen large - scale asymmetric warfare across the country , with the forces opposed to the government unable to engage symmetrically with the Syrian government so other tactics such as suicide bombings and targeted assassinations have been put to effective use . See also . US organisations : Documents :