Asymmetric Warfare

[Raul Zelik], Friday, October 13th 2006, 18:00 - 18:30

At first the notion of »asymmetrical war« is a description of a more or less obvious phenomenon: since 1945 there are less and less wars between states and more and more conflicts between regular forces on the one side and irregular formations on the other side. The state-to-state war - predominant in the time after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 - was characterized by two similar kinds of army: a symmetrical disposition.

At first the notion of »asymmetrical war« is a description of a more or less obvious phenomenon: since 1945 there are less and less wars between states and more and more conflicts between regular forces on the one side and irregular formations on the other side. The state-to-state war - predominant in the time after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 - was characterized by two similar kinds of army: a symmetrical disposition.

Since 1945 the destructive power of weapons of mass destruction had the result that there were less and less state-to-state wars. In the two military blocs, the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, it was known that a clash was only to make at the price of total destruction. In the same period partisan warfare got more and more importance.