ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter deals with the conceptual issue of asymmetric warfare, its forms, unique features, and why the use of armed drones in the prosecution of the war is compelling. The opponents in the war on terror are denominated here in David Galula’s imagery of a fly and a lion—the fly being congenitally incapable of delivering a knockout blow while the lion cannot fly. The argument here is that because asymmetric warfare is lopsided in nature—ostensibly in favour of the nation-state with its enormous resources and hi-tech weapons—the terrorist insurgent tries to compensate for its inferiority in resources and weapons by avoiding conventional combats and employing unconventional weapons like Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). In the same vein, the state that is not capable of flying—in the sense of adopting a hit-and-run strategy of the terrorist—resorts to knockout blows with its own peculiar unconventional weapon—the armed drones.
