Asymmetrical Warfare: Today's Challenge to U.S. Military Power

Sea Power, Oct 2003 by Gardner, Sherry L

ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE: Today's Challenge to U.S. Military Power, by Roger W. Barnett, Dulles, Va.: Brassey's, Jan. 2003. 183 pp. $24.95. ISBN: 1-57488-563-4. Awardwinning author Roger W. Barnett is also professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport R.I. In this concise and penetrating study, Barnett illuminates the effects of operational, organizational, legal, and moral constraints on the ability of the United States to use military force.

He defines asymmetrical warfare as not simply a case of pitting one's strength against another's weakness but rather of taking the calculated risk to exploit an adversary's inability or unwillingness to prevent, or defend against, certain actions. Against such acts as chemical, biological, or suicide attacks, the United States has not prepared any response in kind-indeed the United States either cannot or will not undertake such responses-thus making these attacks especially difficult to counter. A refusal to retaliate in a like manner complicates the decision making process of American policymakers-who seek to wield power and influence on the world stage while at the same time projecting a peaceful and benign image. Barnett concludes that the U.S. must create a formal system of selectively eliminating the constraints that dictate our response to certain situations or scenarios. With bibliography and index.