Asymmetric warfare

Asymmetric warfare (or asymmetric engagement) is a type of war between belligerents whose relative military power, strategy or tactics differ significantly. This type of warfare often involves insurgents, terrorist groups, or resistance militias operating within territory mostly controlled by the superior force.

Asymmetrical warfare can also describe a conflict in which belligerents' material resources are uneven, and consequently, each 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. Such strategies may not necessarily be militarized. This is in contrast to symmetrical warfare, where two powers have comparable military power, resources, and rely on similar tactics and victory standards.

Conventional militaries consider asymmetric warfare a form of irregular warfare – conflicts in which nominally weaker adversaries are not regular military forces of nation-states. For military analysts the term is most often used as an umbrella term to describe what is also called guerrilla warfare, insurgency, counterinsurgency, rebellion, terrorism, and counterterrorism.