ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the basis for some of the judgments. It presents context how and why the form of warfare has been elevated to the place that it occupies—or arguably should occupy—in American national security policy. The chapter focuses on the dynamics of asymmetrical warfare, including defining the approach and the dynamics of its practice, its appeal to some groups, and some of the most articulate examples of its practice in the American military past. Several factors include the end of the Cold War, the US emergence from the Cold War as by far the most powerful symmetrical military force in the world, and the shifting emphasis toward concern with violence in the developing world. The chapter concludes with an extensive examination of the implications of asymmetrical futures for American national security policy, including the effects of such an emphasis on asymmetrical warfare for overall national security policy.
