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133-431: Due to the imbalances of power which exist between state and non-state actors, political violence often takes the form of asymmetric warfare where neither side is able to directly assault the other, instead relying on tactics such as guerrilla warfare and terrorism. It can often include attacks on civilian or otherwise non-combatant targets. People may be collectively targeted based on the perception that they are part of

266-582: A protracted struggle . While targeting McKinley motivated the revolutionaries in the short term, his victory demoralized them and convinced many undecided Filipinos that the United States would not depart precipitously. For most of 1899, the revolutionary leadership had viewed guerrilla warfare strategically only as a tactical option of final recourse, not as a means of operation which better suited their disadvantaged situation. On 13 November 1899, Emilio Aguinaldo decreed that guerrilla war would henceforth be

399-494: A "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars. Genocide is typically carried out with either the overt or covert support of the governments of those countries where genocidal activities take place. The Holocaust is the most cited historical example of genocide . Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain (whether physical or psychological) as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Torture

532-507: A climate of fear among the British public which was subsequently fed by press reports of his preparations for the 1779 Bonhomme Richard mission. From 1776, the conflict turned increasingly into a proxy war on behalf of France , following a strategy proposed in the 1760s but initially resisted by the idealistic young King Louis XVI , who came to the throne at the age of 19 a few months before Lexington. France ultimately drove Great Britain to

665-587: A common organizing framework is to consider the types of violence which are used by the relevant actors: violence between non-state actors, one-sided violence which is perpetrated by a state actor against civilians, and violence between states. Stathis Kalyvas identifies eleven types of political violence: Interstate war, Civil war, Terrorism, Political assassination, Military coup, Mass protest/Rebellion, Intercommunal violence, Organized crime/Cartels, Ethnic cleansing, Genocide, and State repression. Fighting between non-state actors without state security forces playing

798-521: A conflict. "Power," in this sense, is broadly understood to mean material power, such as a large army, sophisticated weapons, an advanced economy, and so on. Mack's analysis was largely ignored in its day, but the end of the Cold War sparked renewed interest among academics. By the late 1990s, new research building off Mack's works was beginning to mature; after 9/11, the U.S. military began once again to grapple with asymmetric warfare strategy. Since 2004,

931-649: A consensus that torture and similar ill-treatment are immoral, as well as impractical. Despite international conventions, torture cases continue to arise such as the 2004 Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal committed by military police personnel of the United States Army . Organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims monitor abuses of human rights and reports widespread violations of human torture by states in many regions of

1064-504: A direct role in the conflict. An ethnic conflict is fought between ethnic groups . While at times a specific ethnic group may have the backing (whether formal or informal) of the state (or conversely, a specific ethnic group may be targeted by the state), ethnic conflict can also take place between two groups without the direct intervention of the state, or despite the state's attempts to mediate between groups. Terrorism can be directed by non-state actors against political targets other than

1197-626: A government or a non-state group, which results in the deaths of civilians is considered one-sided. According to the Human Security Report Project , a campaign of one-sided violence is recorded whenever violence against civilians committed by one group results in at least 25 reported deaths in a calendar year. One form of political violence is genocide. Genocide is commonly defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic , racial , religious , or national group", although what constitutes enough of

1330-410: A national of a state, in the sense of being its citizen , without subjectively or emotionally feeling a part of that state, for example a migrant may identify with their ancestral and/or religious background rather than with the state of which they are citizens. Conversely, a person may feel that he belongs to one state without having any legal relationship to it. For example, children who were brought to

1463-522: A national of one state required rejecting the previous state. Dual nationality was considered a problem that caused a conflict between states and sometimes imposed mutually exclusive requirements on affected people, such as simultaneously serving in two countries' military forces. Through the middle of the 20th century, many international agreements were focused on reducing the possibility of dual nationality. Since then, many accords recognizing and regulating dual nationality have been formed. Statelessness

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1596-480: A number of ways but most recently in the context of the frustration-aggression model theory, expressing that the aggression seen in most riots is a direct result of a groups frustration with a particular aspect of their lives. Widespread and prolonged rioting can lead to and/or produce rebellion or revolution. There are also a number of different types of riots including but not limited to police riots, race riot , prison riots , and sport riot . In political science ,

1729-409: A region or expressing dissatisfaction with the government. There is typically a desire to overthrow the existing power or at least change some of their policies. In many cases, an outside power may intervene on behalf of one side if they share their ideology or condemn the methods/motives of their opponents. Counter-insurgency, another form of political violence, describes a spectrum of actions taken by

1862-445: A revolution is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due to perceived oppression (political, social, economic) or political incompetence . In a revolution political violence is usually common. The use of political violence is usually to fulfill a revolutionary objective, and in times of civil strife to challenge

1995-477: A rise in violence in the 2010s, heavily driven by conflicts involving transnational jihadist groups in the Middle East. The numbers of active conflicts in 2016 and 2019 were the highest recorded. Following World War II , there was a decline in worldwide battle deaths. Since 1946, battle death rates have not matched World War II levels. However, there have been oscillations, with sizable peaks in deaths corresponding

2128-724: A similar distinction as well before 1983, where all nationals with a connection to the UK or one of the colonies were classified as Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies , but their rights were different depending on the connection under different laws, which was formalised into different classes of nationalities under the British Nationality Act 1981 . Nationality is sometimes used simply as an alternative word for ethnicity or national origin, just as some people assume that citizenship and nationality are identical. In some countries,

2261-467: A similar type, and the outcome can be predicted by the quantity or quality of the opposing forces, for example, better command and control of theirs (c2). There are times when this is the case, and conventional forces are not easily compared, making it difficult for opposing sides to engage. An example of this is the standoff between the continental land forces of the French Army and the maritime forces of

2394-424: A social, ethnic, religious, or political group; or selectively, targeting specific individuals for actions that are perceived as challenging someone or aiding an opponent. Many politically motivated militant , insurgent , extremist , and/or fundamentalist groups and individuals are convinced that the states and political systems under which they live will never respond to their demands, and they thus believe that

2527-487: A violent disturbance by a group of individuals formed to protest perceived wrongs and/or injustice. These can range from poverty and inequality to unemployment and government oppression. They can manifest themselves in a number of ways but most commonly in the form of property damage. Riots are characterized by their lack of predictability and the anonymity of their participants. Both make it difficult for authorities to identify those participating. Riots have been analyzed in

2660-537: Is 33% (13/39), which is the largest proportion of external actors in intrastate conflicts since the post-World War II era. Just like armed conflict, there was an increase in fatalities associated with terrorism. In 2014, the United States State Department reported 13,463 terrorist attacks in the world. These attacks resulted in at least 32,700 deaths and 34,700 injuries. In addition, more than 9,400 people were kidnapped or taken hostage. Compared to 2013,

2793-419: Is a Marxist -based social theory which states that social systems reflect the vested interests of those who own and control resources. The people in power use the political and economic institutions to exploit groups with less power. This causes the rest of society to become alienated or psychologically separated from the people in power. Revolutions occur to break down the social and economic separation between

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2926-473: Is a non-combatant , and entirely uninvolved members of the population, counter-insurgency operations have often rested on a confused, relativistic, or otherwise situational distinction between insurgents and non-combatants. Counter-insurgency operations are common during war , occupation and armed rebellions . Electoral violence includes any acts or threats of coercion, intimidation, or physical harm perpetrated to affect an electoral process or that arise in

3059-516: Is a classic case of asymmetric warfare. Israel has a powerful army, air force and navy, while the Palestinian organizations have no access to large-scale military equipment with which to conduct operations; instead, they utilize asymmetric tactics, such as taking hostages, paragliding , small gunfights, cross-border sniping, indiscriminate mortar/rocket attacks, and others. The Sri Lankan Civil War , which raged on and off from 1983 to 2009, between

3192-548: Is a type of war between belligerents whose relative military power, strategy or tactics differ significantly. This type of warfare often, but not necessarily, 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' resources are uneven, and consequently, they both may attempt to exploit each other's relative weaknesses. Such struggles often involve unconventional warfare , with

3325-424: Is awarded based on two well-known principles: jus sanguinis and jus soli . Jus sanguinis translated from Latin means "right of blood". According to this principle, nationality is awarded if the parent(s) of the person are nationals of that country. Jus soli is referred to as "birthright citizenship". It means, anyone born in the territory of the country is awarded nationality of that country. Statelessness

3458-415: Is called naturalization . Each state determines in its nationality law the conditions ( statute ) under which it will recognize persons as its nationals, and the conditions under which that status will be withdrawn . Some countries permit their nationals to have multiple nationalities , while others insist on exclusive allegiance . Due to the etymology of nationality , in older texts or other languages

3591-456: Is carried out (generally covertly) by allegedly non-governmental actors who are connected to or sympathetic to a particular nation's (the "state actor's") interest, it may be deemed war by proxy . This is typically done to give the state actor deniability . The deniability can be crucial to keep the state actor from being tainted by the actions, to allow the state actor to negotiate in apparent good faith by claiming they are not responsible for

3724-505: Is defined by the 1954 Statelessness Convention as "a person who is not considered a national by any State under operation of its law.” A person can become stateless because of administrative reasons. For example, "A person may be at risk of statelessness if she is born in a State that applies jus sanguinis while her parents were born in a State that applies jus soli , leaving the person ineligible for citizenship in both States due to conflicting laws." Moreover, there are countries in which if

3857-422: Is dependent on at least some of the following assumptions: There are two opposing viewpoints on the relationship between asymmetric warfare and terrorism . In the modern context, asymmetric warfare is increasingly considered a component of fourth generation warfare . When practiced outside the laws of war , it is often defined as terrorism , though rarely by its practitioners or their supporters. The other view

3990-554: Is focused on the internal political life of the state and nationality is the dimension of state membership in international law . Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to nationality. As such nationality in international law can be called and understood as citizenship, or more generally as subject or belonging to a sovereign state , and not as ethnicity. This notwithstanding, around 10 million people are stateless . Today,

4123-454: Is frequently used to describe what is also called guerrilla warfare , insurgency , counterinsurgency , rebellion , terrorism , and counterterrorism . The popularity of the term dates from Andrew J. R. Mack's 1975 article "Why Big Nations Lose Small Wars" in World Politics , in which "asymmetric" referred simply to a significant disparity in power between opposing actors in

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4256-412: Is hidden and violence is not. War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states , nations , or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence. Three of

4389-596: Is most commonly described in juxtaposition with the term excessive force. Police brutality can be defined as "a civil rights violation that occurs when a police officer acts with excessive force by using an amount of force with regards to a civilian that is more than necessary". Police brutality and the use of excessive force are present throughout the world and in the United States alone, 4,861 incidents of police misconduct were reported during 2010. Of these, there were 6,826 victims involved and 247 fatalities. At least one of

4522-534: Is not defined by political borders or passport ownership and includes nations that lack an independent state (such as the Arameans , Scots , Welsh , English , Andalusians , Basques , Catalans , Kurds , Kabyles , Baluchs , Pashtuns , Berbers , Bosniaks , Palestinians , Hmong , Inuit , Copts , Māori , Wakhis , Xhosas and Zulus , among others). National identity is person's subjective sense of belonging to one state or to one nation. A person may be

4655-517: Is often used as translation of the Russian nacional'nost' and Serbo-Croatian narodnost , which were the terms used in those countries for ethnic groups and local affiliations within the member states of the federation . In the Soviet Union, more than 100 such groups were formally recognized. Membership in these groups was identified on Soviet internal passports , and recorded in censuses in both

4788-561: Is prohibited under international law and the domestic laws of most countries in the 21st century. It is considered a human rights violation and is declared unacceptable by Article 5 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights . Signatories of the Third Geneva Convention and Fourth Geneva Convention have officially agreed not to torture prisoners in armed conflicts. National and international legal prohibitions on torture derive from

4921-530: Is that asymmetric warfare does not coincide with terrorism. Terrain that limits mobility, such as forests and mountains, can be used as a force multiplier by the smaller force and as a force inhibitor against the larger one, especially one operating far from its logistical base . Such terrain is called difficult terrain . Urban areas, though generally having good transport access, provide innumerable ready-made defensible positions with simple escape routes and can also become rough terrain if prolonged combat fills

5054-449: Is the condition in which an individual has no formal or protective relationship with any state. There are various reasons why a person can become stateless. This might occur, for example, if a person's parents are nationals of separate countries, and the mother's country rejects all offspring of mothers married to foreign fathers, but the father's country rejects all offspring born to foreign mothers. People in this situation may not legally be

5187-463: Is the status or relationship that gives the nation the right to protect a person from other nations. Diplomatic and consular protection are dependent upon this relationship between the person and the state. A person's status as being the national of a country is used to resolve the conflict of laws . Within the broad limits imposed by a few treaties and international law, states may freely define who are and are not their nationals. However, since

5320-400: Is the use of force between neighboring states or states with one major power. Using this metric he finds that there is no downward trend in the rates of conflict initiation since the post-World War II period. Additionally, he finds that the rates of conflict have remained steady over the past two hundred years and the slight increases and decreases in use of force are random. Based on data from

5453-464: The Nottebohm case , other states are only required to respect the claim(s) by a state to protect an alleged national if the nationality is based on a true social bond. In the case of dual nationality, the states may determine the most effective nationality for the person, to determine which state's laws are the most relevant. There are also limits on removing a person's status as a national. Article 15 of

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5586-665: The Tsezar Kunikov has been cited as example of asymmetrical warfare by analysts. A new understanding of warfare has emerged amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . Although this type of warfare does not oppose an insurgency to a counter-insurgency force, it does involve two actors with substantially asymmetrical means of waging war. Notably, as technology has improved war-fighting capabilities, it has also made them more complex, thus requiring greater expertise, training, flexibility and decentralization. The nominally weaker military can exploit those complexities and seek to eliminate

5719-583: The Alamut Castle ) built on strategic mountaintops and highlands with difficult access, surrounded by hostile lands. The Assassins developed tactics to eliminate high-value targets, threatening their security, including the Crusaders . In the American Revolutionary War , Patriot Lieutenant Colonel Francis Marion , known as the "Swamp Fox," took advantage of irregular tactics, interior lines , and

5852-587: The Basque Country as " nationalities " ( nacionalidades ). In 2013, the Supreme Court of Israel unanimously affirmed the position that "citizenship" (e.g. Israeli) is separate from le'om ( Hebrew : לאום ; "nationality" or "ethnic affiliation"; e.g. Jewish , Arab , Druze , Circassian ), and that the existence of a unique "Israeli" le'om has not been proven. Israel recognizes more than 130 le'umim in total. The older ethnicity meaning of "nationality"

5985-540: The First Philippine Republic was a sovereign, independent, socially stable Philippines led by the ilustrado (intellectual) oligarchy . Local chieftains, landowners, and businessmen were the principales who controlled local politics. The war was strongest when illustrados , principales , and peasants were unified in opposition to annexation. The peasants, who provided the bulk of guerrilla forces, had interests different from their illustrado leaders and

6118-562: The Korean War , the Vietnam War , and the Iran–Iraq War and Soviet–Afghan War . Longer term statistical analysis suggests that this pattern is not unusual given the variability involved in a long-term datasets of historical wars, and that conclusions of a downward trend are premature. The Center for Systemic Peace reports that armed conflict in the post-World War II era was at its peak when

6251-678: The Mujahideen and the Soviet Armed Forces during the Soviet–Afghan War of 1979 to 1989, though claimed as a source of the term "asymmetric warfare," occurred years after Mack wrote of "asymmetric conflict." (Note that the term "asymmetric warfare" became well-known in the West only in the 1990s. ) The aid given by the U.S. to the Mujahideen during the war was only covert at the tactical level;

6384-596: The Reagan Administration told the world that it was helping the "freedom-loving people of Afghanistan." Many countries, including the U.S., participated in this proxy war against the USSR during the Cold War . The Kosovo War , which pitted Yugoslav security forces (Serbian police and Yugoslav army ) against Albanian separatists of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army , is an example of asymmetric warfare, due to Yugoslav forces' superior firepower and manpower, and due to

6517-565: The Republic of China nationality , but do not have an automatic entitlement to enter or reside in the Taiwan Area , and do not qualify for civic rights and duties there. Under the nationality laws of Mexico , Colombia , and some other Latin American countries, nationals do not become citizens until they turn the age of majority. List of nationalities which do not have full citizenship rights Even if

6650-484: The Soviet Union collapsed . Following the Cold War , from the 1990s to the early 2000s, there was a decline in this measure of conflict. Between 1992 and 2005, violent conflict around the world dropped by 40 percent. Other datasets on political violence have shown similar trends. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), another project that collects armed conflict data, defines armed conflict as conflict that involves

6783-507: The UCDP , there were 221 intrastate armed conflicts in the period from 1946 to 2019, involving more than 100 countries worldwide. While there has been a general decline in fatalities from such conflicts, the number of active conflicts in 2019 matched its highest record from 2016. In 2019, UCDP recorded 54 state-based conflicts, 28 of which involved transnational jihadist groups. This compares to 40 active armed conflicts in 2014. The three countries with

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6916-566: The United Kingdom 's Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . In the words of Admiral Jervis during the campaigns of 1801 , "I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea", and a confrontation that Napoleon Bonaparte described as that between the elephant and the whale. The tactical success of asymmetric warfare

7049-421: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a nationality," and "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality." A person can be recognized or granted nationality on a number of bases. Usually, nationality based on circumstances of birth is automatic, but an application may be required. The following instruments address

7182-482: The cognate word for nationality in local language may be understood as a synonym of ethnicity or as an identifier of cultural and family-based self-determination , rather than on relations with a state or current government. For example, some Kurds say that they have Kurdish nationality, even though there is no Kurdish sovereign state at this time in history. In the context of former Soviet Union and former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , "nationality"

7315-549: The conventional phase of the war. The British began constructing blockhouses built within machine gun range of one another and flanked by barbed wire to slow the Boers' movement across the countryside and block paths to valuable targets. Such tactics eventually evolved into today's counterinsurgency tactics. The Boer commando raids deep into the Cape Colony , which were organized and commanded by Jan Smuts , resonated throughout

7448-448: The principales of their villages. Coupled with the ethnic and geographic fragmentation, unity was a daunting task. The challenge for Aguinaldo and his generals was to sustain unified Filipino public opposition; this was the revolutionaries' strategic centre of gravity . The Filipino operational center of gravity was the ability to sustain its force of 100,000 irregulars in the field. The Filipino General Francisco Macabulos described

7581-448: The status quo . The goals of political violence can be varied such as to strengthen the position of a group, or to weaken an opposing side. A civil war, also known as an intrastate war, is a war fought within the same state or country between organized groups. Less commonly, it can also be fought between two countries that have been created from one previously unified state. Often these conflicts involve one group wishing to take control of

7714-426: The "weak" can defeat the "strong." Key explanations include: Asymmetric conflicts include interstate and civil wars , 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. In asymmetric conflicts conflict escalation can be rational for one side. In most conventional warfare , the belligerents deploy forces of

7847-466: The 19th and 20th centuries, it was typical for only a certain percentage of people who belonged to the state to be considered as full citizens. In the past, a number of people were excluded from citizenship on the basis of sex, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, religion, and other factors. However, they held a legal relationship with their government akin to the modern concept of nationality. United States nationality law defines some persons born in some of

7980-452: The 40 conflicts in 2014, 11 have been classified at the level of war, which means that there were at least 1,000 deaths in one calendar year. The conflict between India and Pakistan was the only interstate conflict, conflict between two or more states. Out of the remaining 39 conflicts, 13 were internationalized, a conflict between a government and internal opposition group where other states intervene. The percentage of internationalized conflict

8113-408: The Boers' largest city, and captured the capitals of the two Boer Republics . The British then expected the Boers to accept peace as dictated in the traditional European manner. However, the Boers fought a protracted guerrilla war instead of capitulating. 20,000-30,000 Boer guerrillas were only defeated after the British brought to bear 450,000 imperial troops, about ten times as many as were used in

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8246-588: The Filipinos would fight the Americans to a stalemate and force them to withdraw. President McKinley even considered this at the beginning of the phase. The shift to guerrilla warfare drove the U.S. Army to adopt counterinsurgency tactics. Asymmetric warfare featured prominently during the Second Boer War . After an initial phase, which was fought by both sides as a conventional war, the British captured Johannesburg ,

8379-546: The Filipinos' war aim as "not to vanquish the U.S. Army but to inflict on them constant losses." They initially sought to use conventional tactics and an increasing toll of U.S. casualties to contribute to McKinley's defeat in the 1900 presidential election. Their hope was that as president the avowedly anti-imperialist future Secretary of state William Jennings Bryan would withdraw from the Philippines. They pursued this short-term goal with guerrilla tactics better suited to

8512-649: The Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) saw large-scale asymmetric warfare. The war started as an insurgency and progressed to a large-scale conflict with the mixture of guerrilla and conventional warfare, seeing the LTTE use suicide bombing (male/female suicide bombers) both on and off the battlefield use of explosive-filled boats for suicide attacks on military shipping; and use of light aircraft targeting military installations. The victory by

8645-479: The US illegally when quite young and grew up there while having little contact with their native country and their culture often have a national identity of feeling American, despite legally being nationals of a different country. Dual nationality is when a single person has a formal relationship with two separate, sovereign states. This might occur, for example, if a person's parents are nationals of separate countries, and

8778-412: The US outlying possessions as US nationals but not citizens. British nationality law defines six classes of British national, among which "British citizen" is one class (having the right of abode in the United Kingdom, along with some " British subjects "). Similarly, in the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , the status of national without household registration applies to people who have

8911-549: The US-led coalition forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq demonstrated that training, tactics and technology could provide overwhelming victories in the field of battle during modern conventional warfare. After Saddam Hussein 's regime was removed from power, the Iraq campaign moved into a different type of asymmetric warfare where the coalition's use of superior conventional warfare training, tactics and technology

9044-417: The USSR and Yugoslavia. In the early years of the Soviet Union's existence, ethnicity was usually determined by the person's native language, and sometimes through religion or cultural factors, such as clothing. Children born after the revolution were categorized according to their parents' recorded ethnicities. Many of these ethnic groups are still recognized by modern Russia and other countries. Similarly,

9177-679: The Western Border War was an asymmetric war: pro-slavery guerrillas and paramilitary partisans on the pro-Confederate side attacked pro-Union townspeople and commissioned Union military units, with the Union army trying to keep both in check: blocking Kansans and pro-Union Missourians from organizing militarily against the marauding Bushwhackers. The worst act of domestic terror in U.S. history came in August 1863 when paramilitary guerrillas amassed 350 strong and rode all night 50 miles across eastern Kansas to

9310-479: The abolitionist stronghold of Lawrence (a political target) and destroyed the town, gunning down 150 civilians. The Confederate officer whose company had joined Quantrill's Raiders that day witnessed the civilian slaughter and forbade his soldiers from participating in the carnage. The commissioned officer refused to participate in Quantrill's asymmetric warfare on civilians. The Philippine–American War (1899–1902)

9443-548: The actions of parties who are merely sympathizers, or to avoid being accused of belligerent actions or war crimes . If proof emerges of the true extent of the state actor's involvement, this strategy can backfire; for example, see Iran-contra and Philip Agee . 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. Americans became rangers exclusively under

9576-441: 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 . From its initiation, the American Revolutionary War was, necessarily, a showcase for asymmetric techniques. In the 1920s, Harold Murdock of Boston attempted to solve

9709-466: The air. This was true to such an extent that the US employed defoliation methods such as the use of Agent Orange and extensive Napalm use to make forested areas visible from the air. The NVA and VC also used intricate tunnel systems, such as the Củ Chi tunnels , which enabled them to move undetected, store supplies, and evade U.S. search-and-destroy missions. Civilians can play a vital role in determining

9842-452: The asymmetry. This has been observed in Ukraine, as defending forces used a rich arsenal of anti-tank and anti-air missiles to negate the invading forces' apparent mechanized and aerial superiority, thus denying their ability to conduct combined arms operations. The success of this strategy will be compounded by access to real-time intelligence and the adversary's inability to utilize its forces to

9975-510: The attacks and Brown theorized that a violent spark set off on "the Border" would be a way to finally ignite his long hoped-for slave rebellion. Brown had broad-sworded slave owners at Potawatomi Creek, so the bloody civilian violence was initially symmetrical; however, once the American Civil War ignited in 1861, and when the state of Missouri voted overwhelmingly not to secede from the Union,

10108-423: The basis of culture. In international law , nationality is a legal identification establishing the person as a subject, a national , of a sovereign state . It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state against other states. The rights and duties of nationals vary from state to state, and are often complemented by citizenship law, in some contexts to

10241-703: The brink of defeat by entering the war(s) directly on several fronts throughout the world. The American Civil War saw the rise of asymmetric warfare in the Border States , and in particular on the US Western Territorial Border after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the territories to vote on the expansion of slavery beyond the Missouri Compromise lines. Political implications of this broken 1820's compromise were nothing less than

10374-626: The capability to fight and the incentives to misrepresent this information. Functionalism sees society as "an organism whose entire system has to be in good working order for systemic equilibrium to be maintained." However, when there is a shock to the system, society becomes disorientated allowing for collective violence. Mass society argues that violent social movements come from people who are isolated socially and from political institutions. People who are alienated are easily convinced to join radical or extremist movements. Asymmetric warfare Asymmetric warfare (or asymmetric engagement )

10507-669: The century as the British adopted and adapted the tactics first used against them by the Boers. The end of World War II established the two strongest victors, the United States of America (the United States, or just the U.S.) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, or just the Soviet Union) as the two dominant global superpowers . In Southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam, the Viet Minh , NLF and other insurgencies engaged in asymmetrical guerrilla warfare with France . The war between

10640-403: The concept of full citizenship encompasses not only active political rights, but full civil rights and social rights . Historically, the most significant difference between a national and a citizen is that the citizen has the right to vote for elected officials, and the right to be elected. This distinction between full citizenship and other, lesser relationships goes back to antiquity. Until

10773-409: The context of electoral competition. It is used to influence the outcome of elections; to delay, disrupt or derail polls; and to protest election results or suppress protests against election results. Electoral violence is used to influence the outcome of elections because parties cannot win through fraud alone and because candidates cannot rely on fraud agents to perpetrate fraud for them because fraud

10906-601: The country, with the forces opposed to the government unable to engage symmetrically with the Syrian government and resorting instead to other asymmetric tactics such as suicide bombings and targeted assassinations. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has resulted in what could be described in some respects as an asymmetrical warfare scenario. Russia has a much larger economy, population, and has superior military might to Ukraine. The use of MAGURA V5 unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to attack Russian Black Sea Fleet ships such as

11039-464: The current era, persons native to Taiwan who hold passports of Republic of China are one example. Some countries (like Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia) can also remove one's citizenship; the reasons for removal can be fraud and/or security issues. There are also people who are abandoned at birth and the parents' whereabouts are not known. Nationality law defines nationality and statelessness. Nationality

11172-501: The dead and wounded) than a conflict with 1,000 battle deaths today." The current data makes it seem like war is becoming less frequent, when it is not. Bear F. Braumoeller argues that looking at data on per-capita death is a "misleading and irrelevant statistic" because it does not tell us how wars actually happen. A decrease in battle-related deaths can mean that population growth is outpacing war deaths or that "fewer people are exposed to risk of death from war". Instead, we should examine

11305-418: The death penalty, and in 2010, 23 countries carried out executions and 67 imposed death sentences. Methods of execution in 2010 included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. Famine can be initiated or prolonged in order to deny resources, compel obedience, or to depopulate a region with a recalcitrant or untrusted populace. Police brutality is another form of political violence. It

11438-616: The discussion of asymmetric warfare has been complicated by the tendency of academic and military officials to use the term in different ways, as well as by its close association with guerrilla warfare , insurgency , terrorism , counterinsurgency , and counterterrorism . Academic authors tend to focus on explaining two puzzles in asymmetric conflict. First, if "power" determines victory, there must be reasons why weaker actors decide to fight more powerful actors. Key explanations include: Second, if "power," as generally understood, leads to victory in war, then there must be an explanation for why

11571-489: The dynamics of such conflicts where civilian information-sharing is vital. The framework assumes that: Given the additional assumption that the larger or dominant force is the government, the framework suggests the following implications: A survey of the empirical literature on conflict, does not provide conclusive evidence on the claims. But the framework gives a starting point to explore the role of civilian information sharing in asymmetric warfare. Where asymmetric warfare

11704-468: The government of a state which "results in at least 25 battle-related deaths in one calendar year." In their overview of data on armed conflict, UCDP also found that the number of armed conflicts in the world decreased following the end of the Cold War. In The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), Steven Pinker argued that this decline has not occurred over the past 60 years, but has been going on for over

11837-1097: The highest total fatalities in the 1989–2019 period were Rwanda , Syria and Afghanistan , with Afghanistan accounting for 40% of all fatalities worldwide in 2019. As of 2014, regionally, Asia had the largest number of violent conflicts at 14, followed by Africa at 12, Europe at six, Middle East at six, and the Americas at two. In 2014, four new conflicts began, all of them in Ukraine . Three conflicts were restarted by new actors in  Egypt, Lebanon, and Libya. Additionally, six conflicts were restarted by previously registered actors in " Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh) , India ( Garoland ), India–Pakistan , Israel (Palestine) , Mali (Azawad) , and Myanmar (Kokang) ". Finally, seven conflicts in 2013 were no longer active in 2014. The conflicts were in Central African Republic , Ethiopia (Oromiya), Malaysia (Sabah), Myanmar (Karen) , Myanmar (Shan) , Mozambique, and Turkey (Kurdistan) . Out of

11970-741: The largely Loyalist town and spread propaganda blaming it on the British. Shortly afterwards, they destroyed the remaining houses because they might provide cover for British soldiers. The rebels also adopted a form of asymmetric sea warfare by using small, fast vessels to avoid the Royal Navy and capturing or sinking large numbers of merchant ships; however the Crown responded by issuing letters of marque permitting private armed vessels to undertake similar attacks on Patriot shipping. John Paul Jones became notorious in Britain for his expedition from France in

12103-409: The legal nationality as well as ethnicity with a national identity. Nationality is the status that allows a nation to grant rights to the subject and to impose obligations upon the subject. In most cases, no rights or obligations are automatically attached to this status, although the status is a necessary precondition for any rights and obligations created by the state. In European law, nationality

12236-428: The long march from Concord was the urban warfare technique of using buildings along the route as additional cover for snipers . When revolutionary forces forced their way into Norfolk, Virginia and used waterfront buildings as cover for shots at British vessels out in the river, the response of destruction of those buildings was ingeniously used to the advantage of the rebels, who encouraged the spread of fire throughout

12369-405: The maximum of their potential due to factors such as the inability to plan, brief and execute complex, full-spectrum operations. U.S. organisations: Wars Documents: Nationality Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation , defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on

12502-472: The more pacifist abolitionists who had settled Lawrence and other territorial towns to suppress slavery. John Brown , the abolitionist, travelled to Osawatomie in the Kansas Territory expressly to foment retaliatory attacks back against the pro-slavery guerrillas who, by 1858, had twice ransacked both Lawrence and Osawatomie (where one of Brown's sons was shot dead). The abolitionists would not return

12635-482: The most frequently used measures of the Intensity of armed conflict, there was a decline in conflict from 1946 to 2013. Another indicator, the number of civil conflicts, has gradually declined since the Cold War ended. However, more recent scholarship questions the conclusion that violence is decreasing world-wide, based on the measures used and the statistical basis for such interpretations. In addition indicators show

12768-966: The most terrorist attacks were ISIS , the Taliban , al-Shabaab , Boko Haram , and Maoists. Fifty-five percent of the targets were either private citizens, private property, or police. 66% of attacks in Nigeria and 41% of attacks in Iraq targeted private citizens and property. The Global Terrorism Database estimates that  that between 2004 and 2013, about 50% of all terrorist attacks, and 60% of fatalities due to terrorist attacks, took place in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A 2023 PRRI poll found that 23% of those surveyed in 2023 believed that "American patriots may have to resort to political violence to save our country" in 2024, up from 15% of those surveyed in 2021. Theories of political violence can be organized by their level of analysis : Some research does not fit clearly into this dichotomy. Social conflict theory

12901-406: The mother's country claims all offspring of the mother's as their own nationals, but the father's country claims all offspring of the father's. Nationality, with its historical origins in allegiance to a sovereign monarch, was seen originally as a permanent, inherent, unchangeable condition, and later, when a change of allegiance was permitted, as a strictly exclusive relationship, so that becoming

13034-531: The national of any state despite possession of an emotional national identity. Another stateless situation arises when a person holds a travel document (passport) which recognizes the bearer as having the nationality of a "state" which is not internationally recognized, has no entry into the International Organization for Standardization's country list, is not a member of the United Nations, etc. In

13167-470: The nationality law classifies people with the same nationality on paper ( de jure ), the right conferred can be different according to the place of birth or residence, creating different de facto classes of nationality, sometimes with different passports as well. For example, although Chinese nationality law operates uniformly in China , including Hong Kong and Macau SARs, with all Chinese nationals classified

13300-509: The nature of insurgency/counter-insurgency operations. The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (1999), which pitted NATO air power against the Yugoslav armed forces during the Kosovo war, can also be classified as asymmetric, exemplifying international conflict with asymmetry in weapons and strategy/tactics. The ongoing conflict between Israel and some Palestinian organizations (such as Hamas and PIJ )

13433-530: The number of battle deaths per country per year are misleading. Tanisha Fazal argues that wars have become less fatal because of medical advancements that help keep more people alive during wars. Therefore, the battle death threshold used by the UCDP and other organizations to determine cases of armed conflict is misleading. A conflict "that produced 1,000 battle deaths in 1820 will likely produce many fewer overall casualties (where casualties, properly understood, include

13566-460: The number of terrorist attacks increased by 35% and the total fatalities increased by 81%. In 2014, the five countries that experienced the most terrorist attacks were Iraq, Pakistan , Afghanistan, India , and Nigeria. In 2013, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and the Philippines were the countries that experienced the most terrorist attacks. In 2013 and 2014, the perpetrators responsible for

13699-681: The only way to overthrow and/or reshape the government or state accordingly to their political and/or religious worldview is through violent means, which they regard as not only justified but also necessary in order to achieve their political and/or religious objectives. Similarly, many governments around the world believe that they need to use violence in order to intimidate their populaces into acquiescence. At other times, governments use force in order to defend their countries from outside invasions or other threats of force and coerce other governments or conquer territory. Political violence varies widely in form, severity, and practice. In political science ,

13832-407: The outcome of an asymmetric war. In such conflicts, when it is easy for insurgents to assimilate into the population quickly after an attack, tips on the timing or location of insurgent activity can severely undermine the resistance. An information-central framework, in which civilians are seen primarily as sources of strategic information rather than resources, provides a paradigm to understand better

13965-425: The past millennia. However, more recent upward trends show that armed conflict is increasing as political violence in the Middle East and Africa increases. In the past ten years, the UCDP has found an upward trend in the number of internationalized armed conflicts, "a conflict between a government of a state and internal opposition groups with intervention from other states." Some scholars argue that data focusing on

14098-403: The people in power and the exploited people and "to achieve equity and social unity". War's inefficiency puzzle explains why states go to war even though war is costly. In James Fearon 's Rationalist Explanations for War , he asserts war is costly and that creates an incentive to bargain with the other side. However, states do not bargain and instead go to war because of private information on

14231-516: The point where citizenship is synonymous with nationality. However, nationality differs technically and legally from citizenship, which is a different legal relationship between a person and a country. The noun "national" can include both citizens and non-citizens. The most common distinguishing feature of citizenship is that citizens have the right to participate in the political life of the state, such as by voting or standing for election . However, in most modern countries all nationals are citizens of

14364-478: The potential expansion of slavery all across the North American continent, including the northern reaches of the annexed Mexican territories to California and Oregon. So the stakes were high, and it caused a flood of immigration to the border: some to grab land and expand slavery west, others to grab land and vote down the expansion of slavery. The pro-slavery land grabbers began asymmetric, violent attacks against

14497-614: The pro-slavers on the MO-KS border were driven either south to Arkansas and Texas, or underground—where they became guerrilla fighters and "Bushwhackers" living in the bushy ravines throughout northwest Missouri across the (now) state line from Kansas. The bloody "Border War" lasted all during the Civil War (and long after with guerrilla partisans like the James brothers cynically robbing and murdering, aided and abetted by lingering lost causers ). Tragically

14630-473: The pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." What is and is not considered terrorism is itself a controversial political question, as states have often used the label of terrorism to exclusively demonize the actions of their enemies while obscuring "legal" violence administered by the state (e.g. The Troubles , communist rebellion in the Philippines , 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict ). The use of force by an organized armed group, be it

14763-475: The puzzle of the first shots fired on 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. The return of the British force to Boston following the search operations at Concord was subject to constant skirmishing by Patriot forces gathered from communities all along

14896-425: The recognized government of a state to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it. There are many different doctrines, theories, and tactics espoused regarding counter-insurgency that aim to protect the authority of the government and to reduce or eliminate the supplanting authority of the insurgents. Because it may be difficult or impossible to distinguish between an insurgent, a supporter of an insurgency who

15029-499: The regular Yugoslav Army . The Vietnam war is a classical example of the use of terrain to fight an asymmetrical war, The North Vietnamese army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) used the dense jungles, mountains, and river systems of Vietnam to allow for effective concealment of troop movements in spite of superior enemy air power. This allowed supplying troops to be possible without incurring heavy losses from American airstrikes, who could not effectively identify or track their movements from

15162-494: The right to a nationality: Nationals normally have the right to enter or return to the country they belong to. Passports are issued to nationals of a state, rather than only to citizens, because a passport is a travel document used to enter the country. However, nationals may not have the right of abode (the right to live permanently) in the countries that granted them passports. Conceptually citizenship and nationality are different dimensions of state membership. Citizenship

15295-496: The right to change his nationality", even though, by international custom and conventions, it is the right of each state to determine who its nationals are. Such determinations are part of nationality law . In some cases, determinations of nationality are also governed by public international law —for example, by treaties on statelessness or the European Convention on Nationality . The process of acquiring nationality

15428-595: The route, making maximum use of the terrain (particularly, trees and stone field walls) to overcome the limitations of their weapons – muskets 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 Patriots' success; particularly in the Western theater of the American Revolutionary War . Another feature of

15561-506: The same under the nationality law, in reality local laws, in mainland and also in the SARs, govern the right of Chinese nationals in their respective territories which give vastly different rights, including different passports, to Chinese nationals according to their birthplace or residence place, effectively making a distinction between Chinese national of mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau, both domestically and internationally. The United Kingdom had

15694-514: The sloop of war Ranger in April 1778, during which, in addition to his attacks on merchant shipping, he made two landings on British soil. The effect of these raids, particularly when coupled with his capture of the Royal Navy's HMS  Drake – the first such success in British waters, but not Jones' last – was to force the British government to increase resources for coastal defense, and to create

15827-643: The state (e.g. Stabbing attacks at gay pride parades in Jerusalem , Charlie Hebdo shooting ). Because terrorism is a tactic often used by the weaker side of a conflict, it may also fall under violence between a state and non-state actor. While there lacks a concrete definition of terrorism , the United States Department of Defense however defines terrorism as, "the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in

15960-412: The state, and full citizens are always nationals of the state. In international law , a " stateless person " is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law". To address this, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a nationality", and "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied

16093-484: The strategy. This made the American occupation of the Philippine archipelago more difficult over the next few years. In fact, during just the first four months of the guerrilla war, the Americans had nearly 500 casualties. The Philippine Revolutionary Army began staging bloody ambushes and raids, such as the guerrilla victories at Paye , Catubig, Makahambus , Pulang Lupa , Balangiga and Mabitac . At first, it seemed like

16226-537: The streets with rubble: The contour of the land is an aid to the army, sizing up opponents to determine victory and assessing dangers and distance. "Those who do battle without knowing these will lose." The guerrillas must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea. In the 12th century, irregulars known as the Assassins were successful in the Nizari Ismaili state . The "state" consisted of fortresses (such as

16359-429: The ten most costly wars, in terms of loss of life, have been waged in the last century: the death toll of World War II , estimated at more than 60 million, surpasses all other war death tolls by a factor of two. It is estimated that 378,000 people died due to war each year between 1985 and 1994. Considerable scholarship and data has suggested that violence has declined since World War II . Based on battle deaths, one of

16492-504: The term nationalities of China refers to ethnic and cultural groups in China. Spain is one nation, made up of nationalities , which are not politically recognized as nations (state), but can be considered smaller nations within the Spanish nation. Spanish law recognizes the autonomous communities of Andalusia , Aragon , Balearic Islands , Canary Islands , Catalonia , Valencia , Galicia and

16625-616: The tutelage of the Native American allies. (Until the end of the colonial period, rangers depended on Native Americans as both allies and teachers.) 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

16758-466: The warring parties involved is the government of a state. Rebellion is a violent uprising against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a portion of a state. A rebellion is often caused by political, religious, or social grievances that originate from a perceived inequality or marginalization. A riot can be described as

16891-465: 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. Asymmetric warfare is a form of irregular warfare – conflicts in which enemy combatants are not regular military forces of nation-states. The term

17024-502: The wilderness of colonial South Carolina to hinder larger British regular forces. Yugoslav Partisans , starting as small detachments around mountain villages in 1941, fought the German and other Axis occupation forces, successfully taking advantage of the rough terrain to survive despite their small numbers. Over the next four years, they slowly forced their enemies back, recovering population centers and resources, eventually growing into

17157-557: The willingness of a state to go to war. Braumoeller creates a new metric for conflicted called the "use of force", which is the number of militarized disputes that reach at least a level 4 on the 5-point Correlates of War Militarized Interstate Dispute scale. He finds that use of force has held steady from the 1800s through the First World War , but after World War I the use of force has steadily increased. Braumoeller creates another metric called "uses of force per relevant dyad", which

17290-471: The word "nationality", rather than "ethnicity", is often used to refer to an ethnic group (a group of people who share a common ethnic identity, language, culture, lineage, history, and so forth). Individuals may also be considered nationals of groups with autonomous status that have ceded some power to a larger sovereign state. Nationality is also employed as a term for national identity , with some cases of identity politics and nationalism conflating

17423-527: The world. Amnesty International estimates that at least 81 world governments currently practice torture, some of them openly. Capital punishment is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offense. This does not include extrajudicial killing , which is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. The use of capital punishment by country varies, but according to Amnesty International 58 countries still actively use

17556-528: Was an armed conflict between the United States and Filipino revolutionaries . Estimates of the Filipino forces vary between 100,000 and 1,000,000, with tens of thousands of auxiliaries . Lack of weapons and ammunition was a significant impediment to the Filipinos, so most of the forces were only armed with bolo knives , bows and arrows, spears and other primitive weapons that, in practice, proved vastly inferior to U.S. firepower. The goal, or end-state, sought by

17689-402: Was of much less use against continued opposition from the various partisan groups operating inside Iraq. Much of the 2012–present Syrian Civil War has been asymmetrical. The Syrian National Coalition , Mujahideen, and Kurdish Democratic Union Party have been engaging with the forces of the Syrian government through asymmetric means. The conflict has seen large-scale asymmetric warfare across

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