Thinking Asymmetrically in Times of Terror

Bibliographic Data

ID20139948
AuthorsColin S Gray (corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume32
Issue1
Publication date2002-05-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe US Army War College Quarterly Parameters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-1723 • E-ISSN: 0031-1723
PublisherUnited States Army War College Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.55540/0031-1723.2079
OpenAlexW38308831
LanguageEN
Citations received12

In American common usage today, asymmetric threats are those that our political, strategic, and military cultures regard as unusual. Such threats differ significantly in character both from those that we anticipate facing from putative enemies and from the methods with which we plan to menace them. Much as international lawyers thus far have failed to define terrorism to the general satisfaction, so US national security specialists have found that the endeavor to define asymmetric threats has proved generally unproductive. Borrowing from the terrorism case, the most fruitful approach to the better understanding of asymmetric threats is not via a forlorn quest for the perfect definition, but rather by the identification of the principal characteristics of, and corollaries to, asymmetry

Criminology · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies · Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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