Erik A Claessen

Asymmetric Campaigning as a Rational Choice, Planning Considerations Erik A Claessen

Publisher Marketing: There is no shortage of people who disagree with the current state of world affairs and who are prepared to use violence to change them. Are they mindless fanatics, doomed to fail? Or do they have a clever and covert plan with reasonable chance of success? One way to find out is to look at the problem of fighting an overwhelmingly stronger country from the perspective of someone whose aim is to change the current state of world affairs with deadly force if necessary. From this proposition flows the primary research question of this thesis: Is it possible to produce an asymmetric campaign concept sufficiently feasible to constitute a rational course of action against an overwhelmingly stronger opponent? Such a concept requires: first, analysis of the centers of gravity of the asymmetric actor and of the powerful country opposing him; second, the development of a course of action that protects his own center of gravity while attacking that of the opponent; and finally, an assessment of the prerequisites and chances for success. Important changes in the nature of immigration and politics caused by modern transportation and communication technologies have greatly altered the prerequisites and chances for success of campaign concepts that choose the space between human ears as the battlefield.