PS114. International Security in a Changing World1 Introduction to Asymmetric Warfare 1 Regular vs Irregular Wars Comparison of Interstate War with Insurgent Wars Regular Wars Irregular Wars AKA: interstate war, conventional war Participants: Motivation for War: State Actor vs State Actor Territory, policy change, change, status quo Goal: War of ... Relative Power between Participants: Overall Strategy: Military, economic, or political change Blitzkrieg Symmetric regime Tactics: Direct: orchestrate military o↵ensives to eliminate the enemy Military battles, coercion, fire power, troops, tactics to eliminate the enemy, convince civilians to resist Casualties: How is War Changing in the 21st Century? High Drones, WMDs, field medicine, mechanization Outcome: Stronger power wins Examples: World War I, World War II, Gulf War, War in Iraq (early) insurgency, asymmetric conflict, civil war, guerrilla warfare, intrastate war, extrastate war, revolution* State Actor vs Non-State Actor Ideology, religious extremism, ethnic separatism, colonialism, culture, regime change, possibly territory Political change Attrition Asymmetric Indirect: undermine the incumbent or insurgency’s will to fight guerrilla tactics, terror, propaganda, convince civilians to collaborate with insurgency, use local knowledge, fight on own turf Low to Moderate Internet, cell phones, “twi-plomacy,” new techniques to finance insurgency (oil, minerals) Stronger power or weaker power wins conditional on other factors Vietnam War, War in Iraq (late), Tuareg Rebellion in Mali, ISIL Reference Definitions: • State: Members of the international system who are able to exert the independence, possess territory, and have a central government (COW) • Non-State Actor: An organization, group, or collection who live within the borders of another state, but are not integrated into the metropole, e.g. insurgency, guerrillas, terrorists (COW) • Insurgency: An organization fighting for political change whose movement is marked by the support and mobilization of a significant proportion of the population both domestically and external (Kiras) 1 2015. Iris Malone. Please do not cite or share without author’s permission 1