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{{Short description|A war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly}}{{See also|Guerrilla warfare}}[[File:My Tho, Vietnam. A Viet Cong base camp being. In the foreground is Private First Class Raymond Rumpa, St Paul, Minnesota - NARA - 530621 edit.jpg |thumb |upright=1.35|A [[Viet Cong]] [[Military camp|base camp]] being burned during the [[Vietnam War]]. An [[Private first class#United States Army|American private first class]] (PFC) stands by.]]
{{History of war}}'''Asymmetric warfare''' (or '''asymmetric engagement''') is a type of [[war]] between [[belligerent]]s whose relative military power, strategy
▲'''Asymmetric warfare''' (or '''asymmetric engagement''') is a type of [[war]] between [[belligerent]]s whose relative military power, strategy, or tactics differ significantly. This type of warfare often, but not necessarily, involves [[Insurgency|insurgents]] or [[resistance movement]] [[militia]]s who may have the status of [[unlawful combatant]]s against a standing army.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Luyt |first=Brendan |date=2015-05-11 |title=Debating reliable sources: writing the history of the Vietnam War on Wikipedia |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jd-11-2013-0147 |journal=Journal of Documentation |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=440–455 |doi=10.1108/jd-11-2013-0147 |issn=0022-0418}}</ref>
''Asymmetrical warfare'' can also describe a conflict in which belligerents' resources are uneven, and consequently, they both may attempt to exploit each other's relative weaknesses. Such struggles often involve [[unconventional warfare]], with the weaker side attempting to use [[strategy]] to offset deficiencies in the quantity or quality of their forces and equipment.<ref>{{Cite journal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100607224951/http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/Parameters/Articles/04spring/tomes.pdf |url=http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/Parameters/Articles/04spring/tomes.pdf|archive-date=2010-06-07|title=Relearning Counterinsurgency Warfare|first=Robert|last=Tomes|journal=Parameters|date=Spring 2004}}</ref> Such strategies may not necessarily be militarized.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://books.sipri.org/files/RR/SIPRIRR23.pdf|last=Stepanova|first=E|title=2008 Terrorism in asymmetrical conflict: SIPRI Report 23|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press|access-date=2016-03-19|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310143530/http://books.sipri.org/files/RR/SIPRIRR23.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-10}}</ref> This is in contrast to ''symmetrical warfare'', where two powers have comparable military power, resources, and rely on similar tactics.
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*Evolution of asymmetric rivals' attitudes towards time.<ref>{{cite book |last= Resnick|first=Uri |date=2013 |title=Dynamics of Asymmetric Territorial Conflict: the evolution of patience |url= http://www.palgrave.com/uk/book/9781137303981|location=Basingstoke, UK |publisher= Palgrave-Macmillan|page=287 |isbn=978-1-137-30398-1}}</ref>
Asymmetric conflicts include 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 the majority of asymmetric conflicts.<ref>{{cite web|last=Arreguín-Toft|first=Ivan|title=How the weak win wars: A theory of asymmetric conflict|url=https://web.stanford.edu/class/polisci211z/2.2/Arreguin-Toft%20IS%202001.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140823020311/http://web.stanford.edu/class/polisci211z/2.2/Arreguin-Toft%20IS%202001.pdf |archive-date=2014-08-23 |url-status=live|access-date=2012-09-17}}</ref> In asymmetric conflicts [[conflict escalation]] can be rational for one side.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2478.2005.00375.x | doi=10.1111/j.1468-2478.2005.00375.x | title=Fully Informed and on the Road to Ruin: The Perfect Failure of Asymmetric Deterrence | date=2005 | last1=Langlois | first1=Jean-Pierre P. | last2=Langlois | first2=Catherine C. | journal=International Studies Quarterly | volume=49 | issue=3 | pages=503–528 }}</ref>
==Strategic basis==
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==Examples==
===American Indian Wars===
[[File:Colonel Benjamin Church.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Benjamin Church (ranger)|Colonel Benjamin Church]] (1639–1718) from the [[Plymouth Colony]], father of [[Unconventional warfare]], American Ranging, and Rangers]]
Benjamin Church designed his force primarily to emulate Native American patterns of war. Toward this end, Church endeavored to learn to fight like Native Americans from Native Americans.{{r|Grenier2005|p=35}} Americans became rangers exclusively under the tutelage of the Native American allies. (Until the end of the colonial period, rangers depended on Native Americans as both allies and teachers.){{r|Grenier2005|p=34–35}}
Church developed a special full-time unit mixing white colonists selected for frontier skills with friendly Native Americans to carry out offensive strikes against hostile Native Americans in terrain where normal militia units were ineffective. Church paid special care to outfitting, supplying and instructing his troops in ways inspired by indigenous methods of warfare and ways of living. He emphasized the adoption of indigenous techniques, which prioritized small, mobile and flexible units which used the countryside for cover, in lieu of massed frontal assaults by large formations. Benjamin Church is sometimes referred to as the father of [[Unconventional warfare]]. {{cn|date=June 2024}}
===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 [[Battles of Lexington and Concord|Lexington Green]] and came to the suspicion that the few score militiamen who gathered before sunrise to await the arrival of hundreds of well-prepared British soldiers were sent to provoke an incident which could be used for Patriot [[propaganda]] purposes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/harold-murdock%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9C-nineteenth-april-1775%E2%80%9D|title=Harold Murdock's "The Nineteenth Of April 1775"|access-date=2015-08-05}}</ref> The return of the British force to Boston following the search operations at [[Battles of Lexington and Concord|Concord]] was subject to constant [[Skirmisher|skirmishing]] by Patriot 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 meters. Throughout the war, skirmishing tactics against British troops on the move continued to be a key factor in the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots']] success; particularly in the [[Western theater of the American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Ted Franklin|last=Belue|title=Crawford's Sandusky Expedition|encyclopedia=The American Revolution, 1775–1783: An Encyclopedia|volume=1|pages=416–420|editor-first=Richard L.|editor-last=Blanco|location=New York|publisher=Garland|year=1993|isbn=0-8240-5623-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Colin G.|last=Calloway|author-link=Colin G. Calloway|title=Captain Pipe|editor-first=John A.|editor-last=Garraty|editor-link=John A. Garraty|editor-first2=Mark C.|editor-last2=Carnes|encyclopedia=American National Biography|volume=4|pages=368–369|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-19-512783-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=James A.|last=Clifton|title=Dunquat|editor-first=John A.|editor-last=Garraty|editor-link=John A. Garraty|editor-first2=Mark C.|editor-last2=Carnes|encyclopedia=American National Biography|volume=7|pages=105–107|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-19-512786-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Milo M.|last=Quaife|author-link=Milo M. Quaife|title=The Ohio Campaigns of 1782|journal=Mississippi Valley Historical Review|volume=17|issue=4|date=March 1, 1931|pages=515–529|doi=10.2307/1916389 |jstor=1916389 }}</ref>
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====World War II====
*[[Philippine resistance against Japan]]{{snd}}During the [[Japanese occupation of the Philippines|Japanese occupation]] in World War II, there was an extensive Philippine resistance movement, which opposed the Japanese with an active underground and guerrilla activity that increased over the years.
[[File:Molotov
*[[Winter War]]{{snd}}[[Finland]] was invaded by the much larger [[mechanized military unit]]s of the [[Soviet Union]]. Although the Soviets captured 8% of Finland, they suffered enormous casualties versus much lower losses for the Finns. Soviet vehicles were confined to narrow forest roads by terrain and snow, while the Finns used [[Ski warfare|ski tactics]] around them unseen through the trees. They cut the advancing Soviet column into what they called [[Pocket (military)#Motti|motti]] (a cubic metre of firewood) and then destroyed the cut-off sections one by one. Many Soviets were shot, had their throats cut from behind, or froze to death due to inadequate clothing and lack of camouflage and shelter. The Finns also devised a petrol bomb they called the [[Molotov cocktail]] to destroy Soviet tanks.
*[[Soviet partisans]]{{snd}}resistance movement which fought in the [[Operation Barbarossa|German occupied parts of the Soviet Union]].
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