Describe the attributes of asymmetric war, and provide a relevant example.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Directly related to unconventional war, asymmetric war pits two or more groups of very different military size or power against each other. To overcome the disadvantages stemming from this imbalance of power and technological superiority, the smaller or weaker participant often resorts to unconventional tactics rather than engage in an almost certainly futile attempt to fight a traditional battlefield war. These may include guerrilla warfare, subversion, and sabotage, including the use of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) to use against the more powerful adversary. These tactics may also involve attacks that turn the technology of the adversary on itself in improvisational approaches. Take, for example, the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. by al-Qaeda terrorists. They seized control of four U.S. airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. (The fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers struggled with the hijackers to regain control of the plane.) In these dramatic and devastating attacks, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, no explosives were even used—the “bombs” were the hi-tech airliners themselves.