Causes of war

There is great debate over why wars happen, even when most people do not want them to.
Representatives of many different academic disciplines have attempted to explain war.
Historians

Historians tend to be reluctant to look for sweeping explanations for all wars. A. J. P. Taylor
famously described wars as being like traffic accidents. There are some conditions and situations
that make them more likely but there can be no system for predicting where and when each one
will occur. Social scientists criticize this approach arguing that at the beginning of every war
some leader makes a conscious decision and that they cannot be seen as purely accidental.
Psychological theories

Psychologists such as E.F.M. Durban and John Bowlby have argued that human beings,
especially men, are inherently violent. While this violence is repressed in normal society it needs
the occasional outlet provided by war. This combines with other notions, such as displacement
where a person transfers their grievances into bias and hatred against other ethnic groups,
nations, or ideologies. While these theories can explain why wars occur, they do not explain
when or how they occur. In addition, they raise the question why there are sometimes long
periods of peace and other eras of unending war. If the innate psychology of the human mind is
unchanging, these variations are inconsistent.

A solution adopted to this problem by militarists such as Franz Alexander is that peace does not
really exist. Periods that are seen as peaceful are actually periods of preparation for a later war or
when war is suppressed by a state of great power, such as the Pax Britannica.

If war is innate to human nature, as is presupposed by many psychological theories, then there is
little hope of ever escaping it. One alternative is to argue that war is only, or almost only, a male
activity and if human leadership was in female hands wars would not occur. This theory has
played an important role in modern feminism. Critics, of course, point to various examples of
female political leaders who had no qualms about using military force, such as Margaret
Thatcher.

Other psychologists have argued that while human temperament allows wars to occur, they only
do so when mentally unbalanced men are in control of a nation. This school argues leaders that
seek war such as Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin were mentally abnormal and thus if some sort of
1

screening process, such as elections, could prevent these types from coming to power, war would
end.

A distinct branch of the psychological theories of war are the arguments based on evolutionary
psychology. This school tends to see war as an extension of animal behaviour, such as
territoriality and competition. However, while war has a natural cause the development of
technology has accelerated human destructiveness to a level that is irrational and damaging to the
species. We have the same instincts of a chimpanzee but overwhelmingly more power. The
earliest advocate of this theory was Konrad Lorenz. These theories have been criticized by
scholars such as John G. Kennedy, who argue that the organized, sustained war of humans differs
more than just technologically from the territorial fights between animals.
Anthropological theories

Anthropologists take a very different view of war. They see it as fundamentally cultural, learnt
by nurture rather than nature. Thus if human societies could be reformed war would disappear.
To this school the acceptance of war is inculcated into each of us by the religious, ideological,
and nationalistic surroundings in which we live.

Anthropologists also see no links between various forms of violence. They see the fighting of
animals, the skirmishes of hunter-gatherer tribes, and the organized warfare of modern societies
as distinct phenomena each with their own causes. Theorists such as Ashley Montagu emphasize
the top down nature of war, that almost all wars are begun not by popular pressure but by the
whims of leaders and that these leaders also work to maintain the system of ideological
justifications for war.
Sociological theories

Sociology has long been very concerned with the origins of war, and many thousands of theories
have been advanced, many of them contradictory. Some use detailed formulas taking into
account hundreds of demographic and economic values to predict when and where wars will
break out. The statistical analysis of war was pioneered by Lewis Fry Richardson following
World War I. More recent databases of wars and armed conflict have been assembled by the
Correlates of War Project, Peter Brecke and the Uppsala Department of Peace and Conflict
Research. So far none of these formulas have successfully predicted the outbreak of future
conflicts. On the other hand there is a case for avoiding war in the Democratic peace theory,
since liberal democracies rarely go to war against each other. A detailed study by Michael Haas
found that no single variable has a strong correlation to the occurrence of wars. There have been
many other attempts at Predicting War.

Many sociologists have attempted to divide wars into types to get better correlations, but this has
also produced mixed results. Data looked at by R.J. Rummel has found that civil wars and
foreign wars are very different in origin, but Jonathan Wilkenfield using different data found just
the opposite.

Sociology has thus divided into a number of schools. One based on the works of Eckart Kehr and
Hans-Ulrich Wehler sees war as the product of domestic conditions, with only the target of
aggression being determined by international realities. Thus World War I was not a product of
international disputes, secret treaties, or the balance of power but a product of the economic,
social, and political situation within each of the states involved.

This differs from the traditional approach of Karl von Clausewitz and Leopold von Ranke that
argue it is the decisions of statesmen and the geopolitical situation that leads to war.
Information theories

A popular new approach is to look at the role of information in the outbreak of wars. This theory,
advanced by scholars of international relations such as Geoffrey Blainey, argues that all wars are
based on a lack of information. If both sides at the outset knew the result neither would fight, the
loser would merely surrender and avoid the cost in lives and infrastructure that a war would
cause.

This is based on the notion that wars are reciprocal, that all wars require both a decision to attack
and also a decision to resist attack. This notion is generally agreed to by almost all scholars of
war since Karl von Clausewitz. This notion is made harder to accept because it is far more
common to study the cause of wars rather than events that failed to cause wars, and wars are far
more memorable. However, throughout history there are as many invasions and annexations that
did not lead to a war, such as the U.S.-led invasion of Haiti in 1994, the Nazi invasions of Austria
and Czechoslovakia preceding the Second World War, and the annexation of the Baltic states by
the Soviet Union in 1940. On the other hand, Finland's decision to resist a similar Soviet
aggression in 1939 led to the Winter War.

The leaders of these nations chose not to resist as they saw the potential benefits being not worth
the loss of life and destruction such resistance would cause. Lack of information may not only be
to who wins in the immediate future. The Norwegian decision to resist the Nazi invasion was
taken with the certain knowledge that Norway would fall. The Norwegians did not know whether
the German domination would be permanent and also felt that noble resistance would win them
favour with the Allies and a position at the peace settlement in the event of an Allied victory. If in
1941 it had been known with certainty the Germans would dominate central Europe for many
3

decades, it is unlikely the Norwegians would have resisted. If it had been known for certainty
that the Third Reich would collapse after only a few years of war, the Nazis would not have
launched the invasion at all.

This theory is predicated on the notion that the outcome of wars is not randomly determined, but
fully determined on factors such as doctrine, economies, and power. While purely random
events, such as storms or the right person dying at the right time, might have had some effect on
history, these only influence a single battle or slightly alter the outcome of a war, but would not
mean the difference between victory and defeat.

There are two main objectives in the gathering of intelligence. The first is to find out the ability
of an enemy, the second their intent. In theory to have enough information to prevent all wars
both need to be fully known. The Argentinean dictatorship knew that Britain had the ability to
defeat them but their intelligence failed them on the question of whether the British would use
their power to resist the annexation of the Falklands. The American decision to enter the Vietnam
War was made with the full knowledge that the communist forces would resist them, but did not
believe that the guerillas had the capability to long oppose American forces.

One major difficulty is that in a conflict of interests, some deception or at least not telling
everything, is a standard tactical component on both sides. If you think that you can convince the
opponent that you will fight, the opponent might desist. For example, Sweden made efforts to
deceive Nazi Germany that it would resist an attack fiercly partly by playing on the myth of
Arian superiority, and by making sure that Hermann Gring only saw Elite troops in action, often
dressed up as regular soldiers, when he came to visit.
Economic theories

Another school of thought argues that war can be seen as an outgrowth of economic competition
in a chaotic and competitive international system. That wars begin as a pursuit of new markets,
of natural resources, and of wealth. Unquestionably a cause of some wars, from the empire
building of Britain to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in pursuit of oil this theory has been
applied to many other conflicts. It is most often advocated by those of the left of the political
spectrum who argue that such wars serve only the interests of the wealthy but are fought by the
poor.
Marxist theories

The economic theories also form a part of the Marxist theory of war, which argues that all war
grows out of the class war. It sees wars as imperial ventures to enhance the power of the ruling
4

class and divide the proletariat of the world by pitting them against each other for contrived
ideals such as nationalism or religion. Further, wars are a natural outgrowth of the free market
and class system, and will not disappear until the world revolution occurs.
Limited war
The belligerents participating in limited war do not expend all of the resources at their disposal,
whether human, industrial, agricultural, military, natural, technological, or otherwise in a specific
conflict.[1] This may be to preserve those resources for other purposes, or because it might be
more difficult for the participants to use all of an area's resources rather than part of them.
Limited war is the opposite concept to total war.
Examples
American Indian
Many American Indian groups practised limited warfare or similar behaviors. Eastern groups at
the time of contact with Europeans often wouldn't kill all enemies; they would capture many for
adoption to replenish their own populations. This is related to mourning wars. The Aztec did
flower wars to keep subordinate nations symbolically defeated as well as capture sacrificial
victims (who were symbolically adopted). These wars left non-combatants and materials without
risk of physical harm.
Crimean War
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Lord Palmerston decided to fight a limited war against
Russia, since waging a total war would have required massive reform of the armed forces.
Korean War
At the beginning of the war there was strong disagreement between President Harry S. Truman
and General Douglas MacArthur. Truman believed in containment of the North Koreans above
the 38th Parallel. MacArthur, by contrast, pressed for destruction and routing of the Communists,
and the disagreement escalated at the cost of his command and career, as his "[dis]respect [of]
authority" would exasperate Truman and frustrate his limited war policy to contain the
Communist North Koreans above the 38th Parallel. Truman's reasons for containment are as
follows:
"The Kremlin [Soviet Union] is trying, and has been trying for a long time, to drive a wedge
between us and the other nations. It wants to see us isolated. It wants to see us distrusted. It
wants to see us feared and hated by our allies. Our allies agree with us in the course we are
following. They do not believe that we should take the initiative to widen the conflict in the Far
East. If the United States were to widen the conflict, we might well have to go it alone.... If we
go it alone in Asia, we may destroy the unity of the free nations against aggression. Our
European allies are nearer Russia than we are. They are in far greater danger.... Going it alone
5

brought the world to the disaster of World War II.... I do not propose to strip this country of its
allies in the face of Soviet danger. The path of collected security is our only sure defense against
the dangers that threaten us." --President Harry S. Truman[2]
Vietnam War
The concept of limited war was also used in the Vietnam War by the United States under
Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as part of a strategy to contain the spread of
Communism without provoking a wider confrontation with the Soviet Union.
War of Attrition
The War of Attrition was fought between Israel and Egypt from 1967 to 1970 and mostly
consisted of artillery shelling, aerial warfare, and small scale raids.
Falklands War
Often seen as a "textbook example of a limited war - limited in time, in location, in objectives
and in means",[3] the Falklands War was fought over the course of 10 weeks and ended with a
little over a thousand casualties on both sides
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of
combatants such as armed civilians or irregulars use military tactics
including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and
mobility to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military.
Etymology

The term, the diminutive form of "war" in Spanish, is usually translated as "little war", and the
word, guerrilla (Spanish pronunciation: [eria]), has been used to refer to the concept since the
18th century, and perhaps earlier. In correct Spanish usage, a person who is a member of a
guerrilla is a guerrillero ([erieo]) if male, or a guerrillera if female. This term became
popular during the Peninsular War, when the Spanish people rose against the Napoleonic troops
and fought against a highly superior army using the guerrilla strategy.
The term "guerrilla" was used in English as early as 1809, to refer to the fighters (e.g., "The town
was taken by the guerrillas"), and also (as in Spanish) to denote a group or band of such fighters.
However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes the specific style of warfare. The use of the
diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, and scope between the guerrilla army and the
formal, professional army of the state.
Strategy, tactics and organization

Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer War in South Africa

The strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare tend to focus around the use of a small, mobile force
competing against a larger, more unwieldy one.[1] The guerrilla focuses on organizing in small
units, depending on the support of the local population, as well as taking advantage of terrain
more accommodating of small units.
Tactically, the guerrilla army would avoid any confrontation with large units of enemy troops,
but seek and eliminate small groups of soldiers to minimize losses and exhaust the opposing
force. Not limiting their targets to personnel, enemy resources are also preferred targets. All of
that is to weaken the enemy's strength, to cause the enemy eventually to be unable to prosecute
the war any longer, and to force the enemy to withdraw.
It is often misunderstood that guerrilla warfare must involve disguising as civilians to cause
enemy troops to fail in telling friend from foe. However, this is not a primary feature of a
guerrilla war. This type of war can be practiced anywhere there are places for combatants to
cover themselves and where such advantage cannot be made use of by a larger and more
conventional force.
Communist leaders like Mao Zedong and North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh both implemented
guerrilla warfare giving it a theoretical frame which served as a model for similar strategies
elsewhere, such as the Cuban "foco" theory and the anti-Soviet Mujahadeen in Afghanistan.[2]
Mao Zedong summarized basic guerrilla tactics at the beginning of the Chinese "Second
Revolutionary Civil War" as: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the
enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue."[3]:p. 124 At least one author credits the
ancient Chinese work The Art of War (dating from at least 200 BC) with providing instruction in
such tactics to Mao.[2]:pp. 67 Communist leaders like Mao Zedong and North Vietnamese Ho Chi
Minh both implemented guerrilla warfare in the style of Sun Tzu from The Art of War ,[2]

Female Soviet partisans operating under Sydir Kovpak in German-occupied Ukraine

While the tactics of modern guerrilla warfare originate in the 20th century, irregular warfare,
using elements later characteristic of modern guerrilla warfare, has existed throughout the battles
of many ancient civilizations but in a smaller scale. This recent growth was inspired in part by
theoretical works on guerrilla warfare, starting with the Manual de Guerra de Guerrillas by
Matas Ramn Mella written in the 19th century and, more recently, Mao Zedong's On Guerrilla
Warfare, Che Guevara's Guerrilla Warfare and Lenin's text of the same name, all written after the
successful revolutions carried by them in China, Cuba and Russia respectively. Those texts
characterized the tactic of guerrilla warfare as, according to Che Guevara's text, being "used by
the side which is supported by a majority but which possesses a much smaller number of arms
for use in defense against oppression".[4]
History
Main article: History of guerrilla warfare
The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War (6th century BCE)or 600 BCE
to 501 BCE, was the earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare.[2] This directly inspired the
development of modern guerrilla warfare.[5] Guerrilla tactics were presumably employed by
prehistoric tribal warriors against enemy tribes. Evidence of conventional warfare, on the other
hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Since the Enlightenment,
ideologies such as nationalism, liberalism, socialism, and religious fundamentalism have played
an important role in shaping insurgencies and guerrilla warfare. [6]
One of the most remarkable guerrilla warfare warriors was Viriatus, a Lusitanian who led the
resistance against the Roman Empire by obtaining several victories between 147 BC and 139 BC
in the region of Zamora, Spain. Because of the innovative tactics he used during his command,
he made himself the name of Terror Romanorum (Terror of the Romans).
Another notable example of guerrilla warfare was during the 17th century in India when the
Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji attacked the surrounding kingdoms of Bijapur Sultanate
and Qutub Shahi Empire, which had a numerical advantage and huge armies, but little
knowledge of the geographical layout of the Western Ghats and the Deccan Plateau. He
assembled small armies and constantly raided the military camps and won numerous battles even
with insignificant numbers.[7]
Counter-guerrilla warfare
Main article: Counter-insurgency

Mass shootings of Vende royalist rebels in western France, 1793

The Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya, showing Spanish resisters being executed by
Napoleon's troops during the Peninsular War.

Polish guerrillas from Batalion Zoka dressed in stolen German uniforms and armed with stolen
weapons, fighting in the Warsaw Uprising, the largest anti-Nazi guerrilla warfare in Europe.[citation
needed]

A Viet Cong base camp being burned, My Tho, South Vietnam, 1968
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency[8] (COIN) operation involves actions taken by the
recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it.[9] In the
main, the insurgents seek to destroy or erase the political authority of the defending authorities in
a population they seek to control, and the counter-insurgent forces seek to protect that authority
and reduce or eliminate the supplanting authority of the insurgents. Counter-insurgency
operations are common during war, occupation and armed rebellions. Counter-insurgency may
be armed suppression of a rebellion, coupled with tactics such as divide and rule designed to
fracture the links between the insurgency and the population in which the insurgents move.
Because it may be difficult or impossible to distinguish between an insurgent, a supporter of an
insurgency who is a non-combatant, and entirely uninvolved members of the population,
counter-insurgency operations have often rested on a confused, relativistic, or otherwise
situational distinction between insurgents and non-combatants.
Principles
The guerrilla can be difficult to beat, but certain principles of counter-insurgency warfare are
well known since the 1950s and 1960s and have been successfully applied.
Classic guidelines
The widely distributed and influential work of Sir Robert Thompson, counter-insurgency expert
of the Malayan Emergency, offers several such guidelines. Thompson's underlying assumption is
that of a country minimally committed to the rule of law and better governance.[10] Some
governments, however, give such considerations short shrift, and their counter-insurgency
operations have involved mass murder, genocide, terror, torture and execution. Historian
Timothy Snyder has written, "In the guise of anti-partisan actions, the Germans killed perhaps
three quarters of a million people, about 350,000 in Belarus alone, and lower but comparable
numbers in Poland and Yugoslavia. The Germans killed more than a hundred thousand Poles
when suppressing the Warsaw Uprising of 1944."[11]
In the Vietnam War, the Americans "defoliated countless trees in areas where the communist
North Vietnamese troops hid supply lines and conducted guerrilla warfare",[12] (see Operation
Ranch Hand). In the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Soviets countered the U.S.backed
Mujahideen with a 'Scorched Earth' policy, driving over one third of the Afghan population into
exile (over 5 million people), and carrying out widespread destruction of villages, granaries,

crops, herds and irrigation systems, including the deadly and widespread mining of fields and
pastures.[13][14]
Many modern countries employ manhunting doctrine to seek out and eliminate individual
guerrillas.[citation needed]
Variants
Some writers on counter-insurgency warfare emphasize the more turbulent nature of today's
guerrilla warfare environment, where the clear political goals, parties and structures of such
places as Vietnam, Malaysia, and El Salvador are not as prevalent. These writers point to
numerous guerrilla conflicts that center around religious, ethnic or even criminal enterprise
themes, and that do not lend themselves to the classic "national liberation" template.
The wide availability of the Internet has also caused changes in the tempo and mode of guerrilla
operations in such areas as coordination of strikes, leveraging of financing, recruitment, and
media manipulation. While the classic guidelines still apply, today's anti-guerrilla forces need to
accept a more disruptive, disorderly and ambiguous mode of operation. According to David
Kilcullen:
Insurgents may not be seeking to overthrow the state, may have no coherent strategy or may
pursue a faith-based approach difficult to counter with traditional methods. There may be
numerous competing insurgencies in one theater, meaning that the counterinsurgent must control
the overall environment rather than defeat a specific enemy. The actions of individuals and the
propaganda effect of a subjective "single narrative" may far outweigh practical progress,
rendering counterinsurgency even more non-linear and unpredictable than before. The
counterinsurgent, not the insurgent, may initiate the conflict and represent the forces of
revolutionary change. The economic relationship between insurgent and population may be
diametrically opposed to classical theory. And insurgent tactics, based on exploiting the
propaganda effects of urban bombing, may invalidate some classical tactics and render others,
like patrolling, counterproductive under some circumstances. Thus, field evidence suggests,
classical theory is necessary but not sufficient for success against contemporary insurgencies.[15]
Foco theory

A Tuareg rebel fighter in northern Niger, 2008

Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla
fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people
against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his
unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery.
Che Guevara[16]

10

In the 1960s, the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara developed the foco (Spanish: foquismo)
theory of revolution in his book Guerrilla Warfare, based on his experiences during the 1959
Cuban Revolution. This theory was later formalized as "focalism" by Rgis Debray. Its central
principle is that vanguardism by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a
focus for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection.
Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco
ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements.
civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state or country,[1] or, less
commonly, between two countries created from a formerly united state.[2] The aim of one side
may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region or to
change government policies.[1] The term is a calque of the Latin bellum civile which was used to
refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.
A civil war is a high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces, that is sustained,
organized and large-scale. Civil wars may result in large numbers of casualties and the
consumption of significant resources.[3]
Civil wars since the end of World War II have lasted on average just over four
years, a dramatic rise from the one-and-a-half year average of the 19001944 period. While the rate of emergence of new civil wars has been
relatively steady since the mid-19th century, the increasing length of those
wars resulted in increasing numbers of wars ongoing at any one time. For
example, there were no more than five civil wars underway simultaneously in
the first half of the 20th century while over 20 concurrent civil wars were
occurring close to the end of the Cold War. Since 1945, civil wars have
resulted in the deaths of over 25 million people, as well as the forced
displacement of millions more. Civil wars have further resulted in economic
collapse; Somalia, Burma (Myanmar), Uganda and Angola are examples of
nations that were considered to have promising futures before being
engulfed in civil wars
Formal classification

11

Battle of Tewkesbury (1471) of the Wars of the Roses in England

James Fearon, a scholar of civil wars at Stanford University, defines a civil war as "a violent
conflict within a country fought by organized groups that aim to take power at the center or in a
region, or to change government policies".[1] Ann Hironaka further specifies that one side of a
civil war is the state.[3] The intensity at which a civil disturbance becomes a civil war is contested
by academics. Some political scientists define a civil war as having more than 1000 casualties,[1]
while others further specify that at least 100 must come from each side.[5] The Correlates of War,
a dataset widely used by scholars of conflict, classifies civil wars as having over 1000 warrelated casualties per year of conflict. This rate is a small fraction of the millions killed in the
Second Sudanese Civil War and Cambodian Civil War, for example, but excludes several highly
publicized conflicts, such as The Troubles of Northern Ireland and the struggle of the African
National Congress in Apartheid-era South Africa.[3]
Based on the 1000 casualties per year criterion, there were 213 civil wars from 1816 to 1997,
104 of which occurred from 1944 to 1997.[3] If one uses the less-stringent 1000 casualties total
criterion, there were over 90 civil wars between 1945 and 2007, with 20 ongoing civil wars as of
2007.[1]
The Geneva Conventions do not specifically define the term "civil war", nevertheless they do
outline the responsibilities of parties in "armed conflict not of an international character". This
includes civil wars, however no specific definition of civil war is provided in the text of the
Conventions.
Tanks in the streets of Addis Ababa after rebels seized the capital during the Ethiopian Civil War
(1991)
Nevertheless, the International Committee of the Red Cross has sought to provide some
clarification through its commentaries on the Geneva Conventions, noting that the Conventions
are "so general, so vague, that many of the delegations feared that it might be taken to cover any
act committed by force of arms". Accordingly, the commentaries provide for different
12

'conditions' on which the application of the Geneva Convention would depend, the commentary
however points out that these should not be interpreted as rigid conditions. The conditions listed
by the ICRC in its commentary are as follows:[6][7]
(1) That the Party in revolt against the de jure Government possesses an organized military force,
an authority responsible for its acts, acting within a determinate territory and having the means of
respecting and ensuring respect for the Convention.
(2) That the legal Government is obliged to have recourse to the regular military forces against
insurgents organized as military and in possession of a part of the national territory.
(3) (a) That the de jure Government has recognized the insurgents as belligerents; or (b) That it
has claimed for itself the rights of a belligerent; or (c) That it has accorded the insurgents
recognition as belligerents for the purposes only of the present Convention; or (d) That the
dispute has been admitted to the agenda of the Security Council or the General Assembly of the
United Nations as being a threat to international peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of
aggression.
(4) (a) That the insurgents have an organization purporting to have the characteristics of a State.
(b) That the insurgent civil authority exercises de facto authority over the population within a
determinate portion of the national territory. (c) That the armed forces act under the direction of
an organized authority and are prepared to observe the ordinary laws of war. (d) That the
insurgent civil authority agrees to be bound by the provisions of the Convention.
Causes of civil war in the CollierHoeffler Model
Scholars investigating the cause of civil war are attracted by two opposing theories, greed versus
grievance. Roughly stated: are conflicts caused by who people are, whether that be defined in
terms of ethnicity, religion or other social affiliation, or do conflicts begin because it is in the
economic best interests of individuals and groups to start them? Scholarly analysis supports the
conclusion that economic and structural factors are more important than those of identity in
predicting occurrences of civil war.[8]
A comprehensive study of civil war was carried out by a team from the World Bank in the early
21st century. The study framework, which came to be called the CollierHoeffler Model,
examined 78 five-year increments when civil war occurred from 1960 to 1999, as well as 1,167
five-year increments of "no civil war" for comparison, and subjected the data set to regression
analysis to see the effect of various factors. The factors that were shown to have a statistically
significant effect on the chance that a civil war would occur in any given five-year period were:[9]
Availability of finance
An economic dependence on commodities, such as diamonds being mined by these children in
Sierra Leone, is correlated with an increased risk of civil war. (See also blood diamond and
resource curse.)

13

A high proportion of primary commodities in national exports significantly increases the risk of a
conflict. A country at "peak danger", with commodities comprising 32% of gross domestic
product, has a 22% risk of falling into civil war in a given five-year period, while a country with
no primary commodity exports has a 1% risk. When disaggregated, only petroleum and nonpetroleum groupings showed different results: a country with relatively low levels of dependence
on petroleum exports is at slightly less risk, while a high level of dependence on oil as an export
results in slightly more risk of a civil war than national dependence on another primary
commodity. The authors of the study interpreted this as being the result of the ease by which
primary commodities may be extorted or captured compared to other forms of wealth; for
example, it is easy to capture and control the output of a gold mine or oil field compared to a
sector of garment manufacturing or hospitality services.[10]
A second source of finance is national diasporas, which can fund rebellions and insurgencies
from abroad. The study found that statistically switching the size of a country's diaspora from the
smallest found in the study to the largest resulted in a sixfold increase in the chance of a civil
war.[10]
Opportunity cost of rebellion
Armed Jihad al-Muqadas volunteer fighters during the 19471948 civil war in the British
Mandate of Palestine
Higher male secondary school enrollment, per capita income and economic growth rate all had
significant effects on reducing the chance of civil war. Specifically, a male secondary school
enrollment 10% above the average reduced the chance of a conflict by about 3%, while a growth
rate 1% higher than the study average resulted in a decline in the chance of a civil war of about
1%. The study interpreted these three factors as proxies for earnings forgone by rebellion, and
therefore that lower forgone earnings encourage rebellion.[10] Phrased another way: young males
(who make up the vast majority of combatants in civil wars) are less likely to join a rebellion if
they are getting an education or have a comfortable salary, and can reasonably assume that they
will prosper in the future.[11]
Low per capita income has been proposed as a cause for grievance, prompting armed rebellion.
However, for this to be true, one would expect economic inequality to also be a significant factor
in rebellions, which it is not. The study therefore concluded that the economic model of
opportunity cost better explained the findings.[9]
Military advantage
Communist soldiers during the Battle of Siping, Chinese Civil War, 1946
High levels of population dispersion and, to a lesser extent, the presence of mountainous terrain,
increased the chance of conflict. Both of these factors favor rebels, as a population dispersed
outward toward the borders is harder to control than one concentrated in a central region, while
mountains offer terrain where rebels can seek sanctuary.[10]

14

Grievance
Most proxies for "grievance" the theory that civil wars begin because of issues of identity,
rather than economics were statistically insignificant, including economic equality, political
rights, ethnic polarization and religious fractionalization. Only ethnic dominance, the case where
the largest ethnic group comprises a majority of the population, increased the risk of civil war. A
country characterized by ethnic dominance has nearly twice the chance of a civil war. However,
the combined effects of ethnic and religious fractionalization, i.e. the greater chance that any two
randomly chosen people will be from separate ethnic or religious groups, the less chance of a
civil war, were also significant and positive, as long as the country avoided ethnic dominance.
The study interpreted this as stating that minority groups are more likely to rebel if they feel that
they are being dominated, but that rebellions are more likely to occur the more homogeneous the
population and thus more cohesive the rebels. These two factors may thus be seen as mitigating
each other in many cases.[12]
Population size
The various factors contributing to the risk of civil war rise increase with population size. The
risk of a civil war rises approximately proportionately with the size of a country's population.[9]
Time
The more time that has elapsed since the last civil war, the less likely it is that a conflict will
recur. The study had two possible explanations for this: one opportunity-based and the other
grievance-based. The elapsed time may represent the depreciation of whatever capital the
rebellion was fought over and thus increase the opportunity cost of restarting the conflict.
Alternatively, elapsed time may represent the gradual process of healing of old hatreds. The
study found that the presence of a diaspora substantially reduced the positive effect of time, as
the funding from diasporas offsets the depreciation of rebellion-specific capital.[12]
Other causes
Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa has argued that an important cause of intergroup
conflict may be the relative availability of women of reproductive age. He found that polygyny
greatly increased the frequency of civil wars but not interstate wars.[13] Gleditsch et al. did not
find a relationship between ethnic groups with polygyny and increased frequency of civil wars
but nations having legal polygamy may have more civil wars. They argued that misogyny is a
better explanation than polygyny. They found that increased women's rights were are associated
with less civil wars and that legal polygamy had no effect after womens rights were controlled
for.[14]
Duration of civil wars
Ann Hironaka, author of Neverending Wars, divides the modern history of civil wars into the
pre-19th century, 19th century to early 20th century, and late 20th century. In 19th-century
Europe, the length of civil wars fell significantly, largely due to the nature of the conflicts as
15

battles for the power center of the state, the strength of centralized governments, and the
normally quick and decisive intervention by other states to support the government. Following
World War II the duration of civil wars grew past the norm of the pre-19th century, largely due to
weakness of the many postcolonial states and the intervention by major powers on both sides of
conflict. The most obvious commonality to civil wars are that they occur in fragile states.[15]
Civil wars in the 19th and early 20th centuries

An artillery school set up by the anti-socialist "Whites" during the Finnish Civil War, 1918
Civil wars in the 19th century and in the early 20th century tended to be short; civil wars
between 1900 and 1944 lasted on average one and half years.[16] The state itself formed the
obvious center of authority in the majority of cases, and the civil wars were thus fought for
control of the state. This meant that whoever had control of the capital and the military could
normally crush resistance. A rebellion which failed to quickly seize the capital and control of the
military for itself normally found itself doomed to rapid destruction. For example, the fighting
associated with the 1871 Paris Commune occurred almost entirely in Paris, and ended quickly
once the military sided with the government[17] at Versailles and conquered Paris.
The power of non-state actors resulted in a lower value placed on sovereignty in the 18th and
19th centuries, which further reduced the number of civil wars. For example, the pirates of the
Barbary Coast were recognized as de facto states because of their military power. The Barbary
pirates thus had no need to rebel against the Ottoman Empire - their nominal state government to gain recognition for their sovereignty. Conversely, states such as Virginia and Massachusetts
in the United States of America did not have sovereign status, but had significant political and
economic independence coupled with weak federal control, reducing the incentive to secede.[18]

A plane, supported by smaller fighter planes, of Francisco Franco's Nationalists bombs Madrid
during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
The two major global ideologies, monarchism and democracy, led to several civil wars.
However, a bi-polar world, divided between the two ideologies, did not develop, largely due to
16

the dominance of monarchists through most of the period. The monarchists would thus normally
intervene in other countries to stop democratic movements taking control and forming
democratic governments, which were seen by monarchists as being both dangerous and
unpredictable. The Great Powers (defined in the 1815 Congress of Vienna as the United
Kingdom, Habsburg Austria, Prussia, France, and Russia) would frequently coordinate
interventions in other nations' civil wars, nearly always on the side of the incumbent government.
Given the military strength of the Great Powers, these interventions nearly always proved
decisive and quickly ended the civil wars.[19]
There were several exceptions from the general rule of quick civil wars during this period. The
American Civil War (18611865) was unusual for at least two reasons: it was fought around
regional identities as well as political ideologies, and it ended through a war of attrition, rather
than with a decisive battle over control of the capital, as was the norm. The Spanish Civil War
(19361939) proved exceptional because both sides in the struggle received support from
intervening great powers: Germany, Italy, and Portugal supported opposition leader Francisco
Franco, while France and the Soviet Union supported the government[20] (see proxy war).
Civil wars since 1945
Members of ARDE Frente Sur at rest after routing a Sandinista National Liberation Front
garrison at El Serrano during the Nicaraguan Revolution (1987)
In the 1990s, about twenty civil wars were occurring concurrently during an average year, a rate
about ten times the historical average since the 19th century. However, the rate of new civil wars
had not increased appreciably; the drastic rise in the number of ongoing wars after World War II
was a result of the tripling of the average duration of civil wars to over four years.[21] This
increase was a result of the increased number of states, the fragility of states formed after 1945,
the decline in interstate war, and the Cold War rivalry.[22]
Following World War II, the major European powers divested themselves of their colonies at an
increasing rate: the number of ex-colonial states jumped from about 30 to almost 120 after the
war. The rate of state formation leveled off in the 1980s, at which point few colonies remained.[23]
More states also meant more states in which to have long civil wars. Hironaka statistically
measures the impact of the increased number of ex-colonial states as increasing the post-WWII
incidence of civil wars by +165% over the pre-1945 number.[24]
While the new ex-colonial states appeared to follow the blueprint of the idealized state centralized government, territory enclosed by defined borders, and citizenry with defined rights
-, as well as accessories such as a national flag, an anthem, a seat at the United Nations and an
official economic policy, they were in actuality far weaker than the Western states they were
modeled after.[25] In Western states, the structure of governments closely matched states' actual
capabilities, which had been arduously developed over centuries. The development of strong
administrative structures, in particular those related to extraction of taxes, is closely associated
with the intense warfare between predatory European states in the 17th and 18th centuries, or in
Charles Tilly's famous formulation: "War made the state and the state made war".[26] For
17

example, the formation of the modern states of Germany and Italy in the 19th century is closely
associated with the wars of expansion and consolidation led by Prussia and Sardinia-Piedmont,
respectively.[26] The Western process of forming effective and impersonal bureaucracies,
developing efficient tax systems, and integrating national territory continued into the 20th
century. Nevertheless, Western states that survived into the latter half of the 20th century were
considered "strong" by simple reason that they had managed to develop the institutional
structures and military capability required to survive predation by their fellow states
An American Cadillac Gage Light Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle and Italian Fiat-OTO
Melara Type 6614 Armored Personnel Carrier guard an intersection during the Somali Civil War
(1993)
In sharp contrast, decolonization was an entirely different process of state formation. Most
imperial powers had not foreseen a need to prepare their colonies for independence; for example,
Britain had given limited self-rule to India and Sri Lanka, while treating British Somaliland as
little more than a trading post, while all major decisions for French colonies were made in Paris
and Belgium prohibited any self-government up until it suddenly granted independence to its
colonies in 1960. Like Western states of previous centuries, the new ex-colonies lacked
autonomous bureaucracies, which would make decisions based on the benefit to society as a
whole, rather than respond to corruption and nepotism to favor a particular interest group. In
such a situation, factions manipulate the state to benefit themselves or, alternatively, state leaders
use the bureaucracy to further their own self-interest. The lack of credible governance was
compounded by the fact that most colonies were economic loss-makers at independence, lacking
both a productive economic base and a taxation system to effectively extract resources from
economic activity. Among the rare states profitable at decolonization was India, to which
scholars credibly argue that Uganda, Malaysia and Angola may be included. Neither did imperial
powers make territorial integration a priority, and may have discouraged nascent nationalism as a
danger to their rule. Many newly independent states thus found themselves impoverished, with
minimal administrative capacity in a fragmented society, while faced with the expectation of
immediately meeting the demands of a modern state.[27] Such states are considered "weak" or
"fragile". The "strong"-"weak" categorization is not the same as "Western"-"non-Western", as
some Latin American states like Argentina and Brazil and Middle Eastern states like Egypt and
Israel are considered to have "strong" administrative structures and economic infrastructure.[28]
A checkpoint manned by the Lebanese army and US Marines, 1982. The Lebanese Civil War
(19751990) was characterized by multiple foreign interventions.
Historically, the international community would have targeted weak states for territorial
absorption or colonial domination or, alternatively, such states would fragment into pieces small
enough to be effectively administered and secured by a local power. However, international
norms towards sovereignty changed in the wake of WWII in ways that support and maintain the
existence of weak states. Weak states are given de jure sovereignty equal to that of other states,
even when they do not have de facto sovereignty or control of their own territory, including the
privileges of international diplomatic recognition and an equal vote in the United Nations.
Further, the international community offers development aid to weak states, which helps
18

maintain the facade of a functioning modern state by giving the appearance that the state is
capable of fulfilling its implied responsibilities of control and order.[29] The formation of a strong
international law regime and norms against territorial aggression is strongly associated with the
dramatic drop in the number of interstate wars, though it has also been attributed to the effect of
the Cold War or to the changing nature of economic development. Consequently, military
aggression that results in territorial annexation became increasingly likely to prompt
international condemnation, diplomatic censure, a reduction in international aid or the
introduction of economic sanction, or, as in the case of 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq,
international military intervention to reverse the territorial aggression.[30] Similarly, the
international community has largely refused to recognize secessionist regions, while keeping
some secessionist self-declared states such as Somaliland in diplomatic recognition limbo. While
there is not a large body of academic work examining the relationship, Hironaka's statistical
study found a correlation that suggests that every major international anti-secessionist
declaration increased the number of ongoing civil wars by +10%, or a total +114% from 1945 to
1997.[31] The diplomatic and legal protection given by the international community, as well as
economic support to weak governments and discouragement of secession, thus had the
unintended effect of encouraging civil wars.
A fast attack boat of the rebel LTTE in Sri Lanka in 2003 passes the hulk of an LTTE supply ship
that had been sunk by government aircraft, Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009)
There has been an enormous amount of international intervention in civil wars since 1945 that
some have argued served to extend wars. While intervention has been practiced since the
international system has existed, its nature changed substantially. It became common for both the
state and opposition group to receive foreign support, allowing wars to continue well past the
point when domestic resources had been exhausted. Superpowers, such as the European great
powers, had always felt no compunction in intervening in civil wars that affected their interests,
while distant regional powers such as the United States could declare the interventionist Monroe
Doctrine of 1821 for events in its Central American "backyard". However, the large population
of weak states after 1945 allowed intervention by former colonial powers, regional powers and
neighboring states who themselves often had scarce resources. On average, a civil war with
interstate intervention was 300% longer than those without. When disaggregated, a civil war with
intervention on only one side is 156% longer, while when intervention occurs on both sides the
average civil war is longer by an additional 92%. If one of the intervening states was a
superpower, a civil war is a further 72% longer; a conflict such as the Angolan Civil War, in
which there is two-sided foreign intervention, including by a superpower (actually, two
superpowers in the case of Angola), would be 538% longer on average than a civil war without
any international intervention.[32]
Effect of the Cold War
Fall and demolition of the Berlin Wall at Checkpoint Charlie (1990)
The Cold War (19451989) provided a global network of material and ideological support that
often helped perpetuate civil wars, which were mainly fought in weak ex-colonial states rather
19

than the relatively strong states that were aligned with the Warsaw Pact and North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. In some cases, superpowers would superimpose Cold War ideology onto local
conflicts, while in others local actors using Cold War ideology would attract the attention of a
superpower to obtain support. Using a separate statistical evaluation than used above for
interventions, civil wars that included pro- or anti-communist forces lasted 141% longer than the
average non-Cold War conflict, while a Cold War civil war that attracted superpower
intervention resulted in wars typically lasting over three times as long as other civil wars.
Conversely, the end of the Cold War marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 resulted in a
reduction in the duration of Cold War civil wars of 92% or, phrased another way, a roughly tenfold increase in the rate of resolution of Cold War civil wars. Lengthy Cold War-associated civil
conflicts that ground to a halt include the wars of Guatemala (19601996), El Salvador (1979
1991) and Nicaragua (19701990).[33]

Asymmetric warfare (or Asymmetric engagement) is war between belligerents whose relative
military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly. This is
typically a war between a standing, professional army and an insurgency or resistance
movement.
Asymmetric warfare can describe a conflict in which the resources of two belligerents differ in
essence and in the struggle, interact and attempt to exploit each other's characteristic weaknesses.
Such struggles often involve strategies and tactics of unconventional warfare, the weaker
combatants attempting to use strategy to offset deficiencies in quantity or quality.[1] Such
strategies may not necessarily be militarized.[2] This is in contrast to symmetric warfare, where
two powers have similar military power and resources and rely on tactics that are similar overall,
differing only in details and execution.
The term is also frequently used to describe what is also called "guerrilla warfare", "insurgency",
"terrorism", "counterinsurgency", and "counterterrorism", essentially violent conflict between a
formal military and an informal, less equipped and supported, undermanned but resilient
opponen
Definition and differences
The popularity of the term dates from Andrew J. R. Mack's 1975 article "Why Big Nations Lose
Small Wars" in World Politics, in which "asymmetric" referred simply to a significant disparity
in power between opposing actors in a conflict. "Power," in this sense, is broadly understood to
mean material power, such as a large army, sophisticated weapons, an advanced economy, and so
on. Mack's analysis was largely ignored in its day, but the end of the Cold War sparked renewed
interest among academics. By the late 1990s, new research building on Mack's insights was
beginning to mature, and, after 2004, the U.S. military began once again to seriously consider the
problems associated with asymmetric warfare.[citation needed]

20

Discussion since 2004 has been complicated by the tendency of academic and military
communities to use the term in different ways, and by its close association with guerrilla warfare,
insurgency, terrorism, counterinsurgency, and counterterrorism. Military authors tend to use the
term "asymmetric" to refer to the indirect nature of the strategies many weak actors adopt, or
even to the nature of the adversary itself (e.g., "asymmetric adversaries can be expected to ...")
rather than to the correlation of forces.[citation needed]
Academic authors tend to focus more on explaining the puzzle of weak actor victory in war: if
"power," conventionally understood, conduces to victory in war, then how is the victory of the
"weak" over the "strong" explained? Key explanations include
1. strategic interaction;
2. willingness of the weak to suffer more or bear higher costs;
3. external support of weak actors;
4. reluctance to escalate violence on the part of strong actors;
5. internal group dynamics[3] and
6. inflated strong actor war aims.
Asymmetric conflicts include both interstate and civil wars, and over the past two hundred years
have generally been won by strong actors. Since 1950, however, weak actors have won a
majority of all asymmetric conflicts.[4]
Strategic basis
In most conventional warfare, the belligerents deploy forces of a similar type and the outcome
can be predicted by the quantity of the opposing forces or by their quality, for example better
command and control of their forces (c2). There are times where this is not true because the
composition or strategy of the forces makes it impossible for either side to close in battle with
the other. An example of this is the standoff between the continental land forces of the French
army and the maritime forces of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy during the French
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In the words of Admiral Jervis during the campaigns of
1801, "I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by
sea",[5] and a confrontation that Napoleon Bonaparte described as that between the elephant and
the whale.[6]
Tactical basis
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21

The tactical success of asymmetric warfare is dependent on at least some of the following
assumptions:

One side can have a technological advantage which outweighs the numerical advantage
of the enemy; the decisive English longbow at the Battle of Crcy is an example.

Technological inferiority usually is cancelled by more vulnerable infrastructure which

can be targeted with devastating results. Destruction of multiple electric lines, roads or
water supply systems in highly populated areas could have devastating effects on
economy and morale, while the weaker side may not have these structures at all.

Training and tactics as well as technology can prove decisive and allow a smaller force to
overcome a much larger one. For example, for several centuries the Greek hoplite's
(heavy infantry) use of phalanx made them far superior to their enemies. The Battle of
Thermopylae, which also involved good use of terrain, is a well-known example.

If the inferior power is in a position of self-defense; i.e., under attack or occupation, it

may be possible to use unconventional tactics, such as hit-and-run and selective battles in
which the superior power is weaker, as an effective means of harassment without
violating the laws of war. Perhaps the classical historical examples of this doctrine may
be found in the American Revolutionary War, movements in World War II, such as the
French Resistance and Soviet and Yugoslav partisans. Against democratic aggressor
nations, this strategy can be used to play on the electorate's patience with the conflict (as
in the Vietnam War, and others since) provoking protests, and consequent disputes among
elected legislators.

If the inferior power is in an aggressive position, however, and/or turns to tactics

prohibited by the laws of war (jus in bello), its success depends on the superior power's
refraining from like tactics. For example, the law of land warfare prohibits the use of a
flag of truce or clearly marked medical vehicles as cover for an attack or ambush, but an
asymmetric combatant using this prohibited tactic to its advantage depends on the
superior power's obedience to the corresponding law. Similarly, laws of warfare prohibit
combatants from using civilian settlements, populations or facilities as military bases, but
when an inferior power uses this tactic, it depends on the premise that the superior power
will respect the law that the other is violating, and will not attack that civilian target, or if
they do the propaganda advantage will outweigh the material loss. As seen in most
conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, this is highly unlikely as the propaganda
advantage has always outweighed adherence to international law, especially by
dominating sides of any conflict.

Use of terrain
Terrain can be used as a force multiplier by the smaller force and as a force inhibitor against the
larger force. Such terrain is called difficult terrain.

22

The contour of the land is an aid to the army; sizing up opponents to determine victory, assessing
dangers and distance. "Those who do battle without knowing these will lose." Sun Tzu, The
Art of War
The guerrillas must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea. Mao Zedong.
A good example of this type of strategy is the Battle of Thermopylae, where the narrow terrain of
a defile was used to funnel the Persian forces, who were numerically superior, to a point where
they could not use their size as an advantage.
For a detailed description of the advantages for the weaker force in the use of built-up areas
when engaging in asymmetric warfare, see the article on urban warfare.
War by proxy
Where asymmetric warfare is carried out (generally covertly) by allegedly non-governmental
actors who are connected to or sympathetic to a particular nation's (the "state actor's") interest, it
may be deemed war by proxy. This is typically done to give deniability to the state actor. The
deniability can be important to keep the state actor from being tainted by the actions, to allow the
state actor to negotiate in apparent good faith by claiming they are not responsible for the actions
of parties who are merely sympathizers, or to avoid being accused of belligerent actions or war
crimes. If proof emerges of the true extent of the state actor's involvement, this strategy can
backfire; for example see Iran-contra and Philip Agee.
Asymmetric warfare and terrorism
There are two different viewpoints on the relationship between asymmetric warfare and
terrorism. In the modern context, asymmetric warfare is increasingly considered a component of
fourth generation warfare. When practiced outside the laws of war, it is often defined as
terrorism, though rarely by its practitioners or their supporters.[7]
The other view is that asymmetric warfare does not coincide with terrorism. The use of terror by
the much lesser Mongol forces in the creation and control of the Mongol empire could be viewed
as asymmetric warfare. The other is the use of state terrorism by the superior Nazi forces in the
Balkans, in an attempt to suppress the resistance movement.[citation needed]
Examples
American Revolutionary War
From its initiation, the American Revolutionary War was, necessarily, a showcase for
asymmetric techniques. In the 1920s, Harold Murdock of Boston attempted to solve the puzzle of
the first shots fired on Lexington Green, and came to the suspicion that the few score militia men
who gathered before sunrise to await the arrival of hundreds of well-prepared British soldiers
were sent specifically to provoke an incident which could be used for propaganda purposes.[8]
The return of the British force to Boston following the search operations at Concord was subject
23

to constant skirmishing, using partisan forces gathered from communities all along the route,
making maximum use of the terrain (particularly trees and stone field walls) to overcome the
limitations of their weapons- muskets with an effective range of only about 5070 metres.
Throughout the war, skirmishing tactics against British troops on the move continued to be a key
factor in the Patriots' success; however, they may also have encouraged the occasional incidents,
particularly in the later stages, where British troops used alleged surrender violations as a
justification for killing large numbers of captives (e.g., Waxhaw and Groton Heights).
Another feature of the long march from Concord was the urban warfare technique of using
buildings along the route as additional cover for snipers. When revolutionary forces forced their
way into Norfolk, Virginia, and used waterfront buildings as cover for shots at British vessels out
in the river, the response of destruction of those buildings was ingeniously used to the advantage
of the rebels, who encouraged the spread of fire throughout the largely Loyalist town, and spread
propaganda blaming it on the British. Shortly afterwards they destroyed the remaining houses, on
the grounds that they might provide cover for British soldiers. On the subject of propaganda, it
should be borne in mind that, contrary to the impression given in the popular American film The
Patriot, British forces never adopted a popular response to partisan-style asymmetric warfare
retribution massacres of groups selected on a semi-random basis from the population at large.
The rebels also adopted a form of asymmetric sea warfare, by using small, fast vessels to avoid
the Royal Navy, and capturing or sinking large numbers of merchant ships; however the British
responded by issuing letters of marque permitting private armed vessels to undertake reciprocal
attacks on enemy shipping. John Paul Jones became notorious in Britain for his expedition from
France in the little sloop of war Ranger in April 1778, during which, in addition to his attacks on
merchant shipping, he made two landings on British soil. The effect of these raids, particularly
when coupled with his capture of the Royal Navy's HMS Drakethe first such success in British
waters, but not Jones's lastwas to force the British government to increase resources for coastal
defence, and to create a climate of fear among the British public which was subsequently fed by
press reports of his preparations for the 1779 Bonhomme Richard mission.
From 1776, the conflict turned increasingly into a proxy war on behalf of France, following a
strategy proposed in the 1760s but initially resisted by the idealistic young King Louis XVI, who
came to the throne at the age of 19 a few months before Lexington. France also encouraged
proxy wars against the British in India, but ultimately drove Great Britain to the brink of defeat
by entering the war(s) directly, on several fronts throughout the world.[9][page needed]
American Civil War
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The American Civil War saw the rise of asymmetric warfare in the Border States, and in
particular on the US Western Territorial Border after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened
the territories to voting on the expansion of slavery beyond the Missouri Compromise lines.
24

Political implications of this broken 1820s compromise were nothing less than the potential
expansion of slavery all across the North American continent, including the northern reaches of
the annexed Mexican territories to California and Oregon. So the stakes were high and it caused
a flood of immigration to the border: some to grab land and expand slavery west, others to grab
land and vote down the expansion of slavery. The pro-slavery land grabbers began asymmetric
violent attacks against the more pacifist abolitionists who had settled Lawrence and other
territorial towns for suppressing slavery. John Brown travelled to Osawatomie in the Kansas
Territory expressly to foment retaliatory attacks back against the pro-slavery guerrillas who, by
1858, had twice ransacked both Lawrence and Osawatomie (where one of Brown's sons was shot
dead).
The abolitionists would not return the attacks and Brown theorized that a violent spark set off on
"the Border" would be a way to finally ignite his long hoped-for slave rebellion.[10][time needed]
Brown had broad-sworded slave owners at Potawatomi Creek, so the bloody civilian violence
was initially symmetrical; however, once the American Civil War ignited in 1861, and when the
state of Missouri voted overwhelmingly not to secede from the Union, the pro-slavers on the
MO-KS border were driven either south to Arkansas and Texas, or undergroundwhere they
became guerrilla fighters and "Bushwhackers" living in the brushy ravines throughout northwest
Missouri across the (now) state line from Kansas. The bloody "Border War" lasted all during the
Civil War (and long after with guerrilla partisans like the James brothers cynically robbing and
murdering, aided and abetted by lingering lost-causers[11][page needed]). Tragically the Western Border
War was an asymmetric war: pro-slavery guerrillas and paramilitary partisans on the proConfederate side attacking pro-Union townspeople and commissioned Union military units; with
the Union army trying to keep both in check: blocking Kansans and pro-Union Missourians from
organizing militarily against the marauding Bushwhackers.
The worst act of domestic terror in US history came in August 1863 when paramilitary guerrillas
amassed 350 strong and rode all night 50 miles across eastern Kansas to the abolitionist
stronghold of Lawrence (a political target) and destroyed the town, gunning down 150 civilians.
The Confederate officer whose company had joined Quantrill's gang that day witnessed the
civilian slaughter and forbade his soldiers from joining in the carnage. The commissioned officer
refused to participate in Quantrill's asymmetric warfare on civilians.[12][broken citation]
Philippine-American War
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removed. (December 2014)
The PhilippineAmerican War (18991902) was an armed conflict between the United States
and Filipino revolutionaries. Estimates of the Filipino forces vary between 100,000 to 1,000,000,
with tens of thousands of auxiliaries.[13] Lack of weapons and ammunition was a significant
impediment to the Filipinos, so most of the forces were only armed with bolo knives, bows and
arrows, spears and other primitive weapons that, in practice, proved vastly inferior to U.S.
firepower.
25

Remnants of rifles used by Filipino soldiers during the War on display at Clark Museum.
The goal, or end-state, sought by the First Philippine Republic was a sovereign, independent,
socially stable Philippines led by the ilustrado (intellectual) oligarchy.[14] Local chieftains,
landowners, and businessmen were the principales who controlled local politics. The war was
strongest when illustrados, principales, and peasants were unified in opposition to annexation.[14]
The peasants, who provided the bulk of guerrilla manpower, had interests different from their
illustrado leaders and the principales of their villages.[14] Coupled with the ethnic and geographic
fragmentation, unity was a daunting task. The challenge for Aguinaldo and his generals was to
sustain unified Filipino public opposition; this was the revolutionaries' strategic center of gravity.
[14]
The Filipino operational center of gravity was the ability to sustain its force of 100,000
irregulars in the field.[15] The Filipino general Francisco Macabulos described the Filipinos' war
aim as, "not to vanquish the U.S. Army but to inflict on them constant losses." They initially
sought to use conventional tactics and an increasing toll of U.S. casualties to contribute to
McKinley's defeat in the 1900 presidential election.[15] Their hope was that as President the
avowedly anti-imperialist future Secretary of state William Jennings Bryan would withdraw from
the Philippines.[15] They pursued this short-term goal with guerrilla tactics better suited to a
protracted struggle.[15] While targeting McKinley motivated the revolutionaries in the short term,
his victory demoralized them and convinced many undecided Filipinos that the United States
would not depart precipitously.[15] For most of 1899, the revolutionary leadership had viewed
guerrilla warfare strategically only as a tactical option of final recourse, not as a means of
operation which better suited their disadvantaged situation. On November 13, 1899, Emilio
Aguinaldo decreed that guerrilla war would henceforth be the strategy. This made American
occupation of the Philippine archipelago all the more difficult over the next few years. In fact,
during just the first four months of the guerrilla war, the Americans had nearly 500 casualties.
The Philippine Revolutionary Army began staging bloody ambushes and raids, such as the
guerrilla victories at Paye, Catubig, Makahambus, Pulang Lupa, Balangiga and Mabitac. At first,
it even seemed as if the Filipinos would fight the Americans to a stalemate and force them to
withdraw. This was even considered by President McKinley at the beginning of the phase. The
shift to guerrilla warfare drove the US Army to adopt counter-insurgency tactics. Civilians were
given identification and forced into concentration camps with a publicly announced deadline
after which all persons found outside of camps without identification would be shot on sight.
Thousands of civilians died in these camps due to poor conditions.
20th century
26

Second Boer War

Asymmetric warfare featured prominently during the Second Boer War. After an initial phase,
which was fought by both sides as a conventional war, the British captured Johannesburg, the
Boers' largest city, and captured the capitals of the two Boer Republics. The British then
expected the Boers to accept peace as dictated by the victors in the traditional European way.
However instead of capitulating, the Boers fought a protracted guerrilla war. 20,00030,000[ambiguous] Boer guerrillas were only defeated after the British brought to bear 450,000
troops, about ten times as many as were used in the conventional phase of the war. During this
phase the British introduced internment in concentration camps for the Boer civilian population
and also implemented a scorched earth policy. Later, the British began using blockhouses built
within machine gun range of one another and flanked by barbed wire to slow the Boers'
movement across the countryside and block paths to valuable targets. Such tactics eventually
evolved into today's counter insurgency tactics.
The Boer commando raids deep into the Cape Colony, which were organized and commanded by
Jan Smuts, resonated throughout the century as the British adopted and adapted the tactics first
used against them by the Boers.
World War I

Lawrence of Arabia and British support for the Arab uprising against the Ottoman
Empire. The Ottomans were the stronger power, the Arabs the weaker.

Austria-Hungary vs. Serbia, August 1914. Austria-Hungary was the stronger power,
Serbia the weaker.

Germany vs. Belgium, August 1914. Germany was the stronger power, Belgium the
weaker.

Between the World Wars

Abd el-Krim led resistance in Morocco from 1920 to 1924 against French and Spanish
colonial armies ten times as strong as the guerilla force, led by General Philippe Ptain.

TIGR, the first anti-fascist national-defensive organization in Europe, fought against

Benito Mussolini's regime in northeast Italy.

Anglo-Irish War (Irish War of Independence) fought between the Irish Republican Army
and the Black and Tans/Auxiliaries. Lloyd George (British Prime Minister at the time)
attempted to persuade other nations that it was not a war by refusing to use the army and
using the Black and Tans instead but the conflict was conducted as an asymmetric
guerrilla war and was registered as a war with the League of Nations by the Irish Free
State.

27

World War II

Philippine resistance against Japan - Philippines - During the Japanese occupation in

World War II, there was an extensive Philippine resistance movement, which opposed the
Japanese with active underground and guerrilla activity that increased over the years.

Winter War Finland opposed an invasion by the Soviet Union

Soviet partisans resistance movement which fought in the German occupied parts of the
Soviet Union.

Warsaw Uprising Poland (Home Army, Armia Krajowa) rose up against the German
occupation.

Germany in Yugoslavia, 194145 (Germany vs. Tito's Partisans and Mihailovi's

Chetniks).

Britain

British Commandos and European coastal raids. German countermeasures and the
notorious Commando Order

Long Range Desert Group and the Special Air Service in Africa and later in Europe.

South East Asian Theatre: Wingate, Chindits, Force 136, V Force

Special Operations Executive (SOE)

British Armed Forces against the Provisional Irish Republican Army in the Northern
Campaign

United States

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

China Burma India Theatre: Merrill's Marauders and OSS Detachment 101

After World War II

United States Military Assistance Command Studies and Observations Group (US MACV SOG) in Vietnam

United States support of the Nicaraguan Contras

28

Cold War
The end of World War II established the two most powerful victors, the United States of America
(USA, or just the United States) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, or just the
Soviet Union) as the two dominant world superpowers.
Cold War examples of proxy wars
See also: proxy war
In Southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam, the Viet Minh, NLF and other insurgencies engaged in
asymmetrical guerrilla warfare with France, at first, then, later, the United States during the
period of the Vietnam War.
Likewise, the war between the mujahideen and the Red Army during the Soviet war in
Afghanistan has been claimed as the source of the term "asymmetric warfare",[16] although this
war occurred years after Mack wrote of "asymmetric conflict," it is notable that the term became
well known in the West only in the 1990s.[17] The aid given by the U.S. to the mujahadeen during
the war was only covert at the tactical level, the Reagan Administration told the world that it was
helping the "freedom-loving people of Afghanistan". This proxy war was aided by many
countries including the USA against the USSR during the Cold War. It was considered cost
effective and politically successful,[18] as it was a drain on the resources and manpower of the
USSR and turned out to be a contributing factor to its collapse in 1991.[citation needed]
21st century
Israel/Palestinians
The ongoing battle between the Israelis and some Palestinian organizations (such as Hamas and
Islamic Jihad) is a classic case of asymmetric warfare. Israel has a powerful army, air force and
navy, while the Palestinian organisations have no access to large-scale military equipment with
which to conduct operations; instead, they utilize asymmetric tactics, such as: small gunfights,
cross-border sniping, rocket attacks,[19] and suicide bombing.[20]
Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan Civil War, which raged on and off from 1983 to 2009, between the Sri Lankan
government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) saw large-scale asymmetric
warfare. The war started as an insurgency and progressed to a large-scale conflict with the
mixture of guerrilla and conventional warfare. The LTTE pioneered the use of suicide bombing
and perfected it with the use of male/female suicide bombers both on and off battlefield; use of
explosive-filled boats for suicide attacks on military shipping; use of light aircraft targeting
military installations.
Kashmir
Pakistan claims territorial rights to the region of Kashmir owned by India, where both sides have
engaged in proxy wars on numerous occasions.

29

Iraq
The victory by the US-led coalition forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of
Iraq, demonstrated that training, tactics and technology can provide overwhelming victories in
the field of battle during modern conventional warfare. After Saddam Hussein's regime was
removed from power, the Iraq campaign moved into a different type of asymmetric warfare
where the coalition's use of superior conventional warfare training, tactics and technology were
of much less use against continued opposition from the various partisan groups operating inside
Iraq.
Syria
This section contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner
without imparting real information. Please remove or replace such wording and instead
of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to
demonstrate that importance. (September 2015)
Much of the 2012-2013 Syrian civil war has been fought asymmetrically. The Syrian National
Coalition along with the Mujahideen and Kurdish Democratic Union Party, have been engaging
with the forces of the Syrian government through asymmetric means. The conflict has seen largescale asymmetric warfare across the country, with the forces opposed to the government unable
to engage symmetrically with the Syrian government and have to resort to other asymmetric
tactics such as suicide bombings[21][22] and targeted assassinations.

30

A nation state is a geographical area that can be identified as deriving its political legitimacy
from serving as a sovereign nation.[1] A state is a political and geopolitical entity, while a nation
is a cultural and ethnic one. The term "nation state" implies that the two coincide, but "nation
state" formation can take place at different times in different parts of the world.
The concept of a nation state can be compared and contrasted with that of the multinational state,
city state,[2][3][4] empire, confederation, and other state formations with which it may overlap. The
key distinction is the identification of a people with a polity in the "nation state."
History and origins
Main article: Nation
The origins and early history of nation states are disputed. A major theoretical question is:
"Which came first, the nation or the nation state?" Scholars such as Professor Steven Weber of
the University of California, Berkeley, David Woodward, and Jeremy Black[5][6] have advanced
the hypothesis that the nation state didn't arise out of political ingenuity or an unknown
undetermined source,nor was it an accident of history or political invention; but is an inadvertent
byproduct of 15th-century intellectual discoveries in Political economy, Capitalism,
Mercantilism, Political geography, and Geography[7][8] combined together with Cartography[9][10]
and advances in map-making technologies.[11][12] It was with these intellectual discoveries and
technological advances that the nation state arose. For others, the nation existed first, then
nationalist movements arose for sovereignty, and the nation state was created to meet that
demand. Some "modernization theories" of nationalism see it as a product of government
policies to unify and modernize an already existing state. Most theories see the nation state as a
19th-century European phenomenon, facilitated by developments such as state-mandated
education, mass literacy and mass media. However, historians[who?] also note the early emergence
of a relatively unified state and identity in Portugal and the Dutch Republic.[citation needed]
In France, Eric Hobsbawm argues, the French state preceded the formation of the French people.
Hobsbawm considers that the state made the French nation, not French nationalism, which
emerged at the end of the 19th century, the time of the Dreyfus Affair. At the time of the 1789
31

French Revolution, only half of the French people spoke some French, and 12-13% spoke it
"fairly", according to Hobsbawm.[citation needed]
During the Italian unification, the number of people speaking the Italian language was even
lower. The French state promoted the unification of various dialects and languages into the
French language. The introduction of conscription and the Third Republic's 1880s laws on public
instruction, facilitated the creation of a national identity, under this theory.[citation needed]
Some nation states, such as Germany or Italy, came into existence at least partly as a result of
political campaigns by nationalists, during the 19th century. In both cases, the territory was
previously divided among other states, some of them very small. The sense of common identity
was at first a cultural movement, such as in the Vlkisch movement in German-speaking states,
which rapidly acquired a political significance. In these cases, the nationalist sentiment and the
nationalist movement clearly precede the unification of the German and Italian nation states.
[citation needed]

Historians Hans Kohn, Liah Greenfeld, Philip White and others have classified nations such as
Germany or Italy, where cultural unification preceded state unification, as ethnic nations or
ethnic nationalities. Whereas 'state-driven' national unifications, such as in France, England or
China, are more likely to flourish in multiethnic societies, producing a traditional national
heritage of civic nations, or territory-based nationalities.[13][14][15] Some authors deconstruct the
distinction between ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism because of the ambiguity of the
concepts. They argue that the paradigmatic case of Ernest Renan is an idealisation and it should
be interpreted within the German tradition and not in opposition to it. For example, they argue
that the arguments used by Renan at the conference What is a nation? are not consistent with his
thinking. This alleged civic conception of the nation would be determined only by the case of the
loss gives Alsace and Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War.[16]
The idea of a nation state was and is associated with the rise of the modern system of states,
often called the "Westphalian system" in reference to the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). The
balance of power, which characterized that system, depended on its effectiveness upon clearly
defined, centrally controlled, independent entities, whether empires or nation states, which
recognize each other's sovereignty and territory. The Westphalian system did not create the
nation state, but the nation state meets the criteria for its component states (by assuming that
there is no disputed territory).[citation needed]
The nation state received a philosophical underpinning in the era of Romanticism, at first as the
'natural' expression of the individual peoples (romantic nationalism: see Johann Gottlieb Fichte's
conception of the Volk, later opposed by Ernest Renan). The increasing emphasis during the 19th
century on the ethnic and racial origins of the nation, led to a redefinition of the nation state in
these terms.[15] Racism, which in Boulainvilliers's theories was inherently antipatriotic and
antinationalist, joined itself with colonialist imperialism and "continental imperialism", most
notably in pan-Germanic and pan-Slavic movements.[17]
The relation between racism and ethnic nationalism reached its height in the 20th century
fascism and Nazism. The specific combination of 'nation' ('people') and 'state' expressed in such
32

terms as the Vlkische Staat and implemented in laws such as the 1935 Nuremberg laws made
fascist states such as early Nazi Germany qualitatively different from non-fascist nation states.
Minorities were not considered part of the people (Volk), and were consequently denied to have
an authentic or legitimate role in such a state. In Germany, neither Jews nor the Roma were
considered part of the people, and were specifically targeted for persecution. German nationality
law defined 'German' on the basis of German ancestry, excluding all non-Germans from the
people.[citation needed]
In recent years, a nation state's claim to absolute sovereignty within its borders has been much
criticized.[15] A global political system based on international agreements and supra-national
blocs characterized the post-war era. Non-state actors, such as international corporations and
non-governmental organizations, are widely seen as eroding the economic and political power of
nation states, potentially leading to their eventual disappearance.[citation needed]
Before the nation state

Dissolution of the multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire (1918)

In Europe, during the 18th century, the classic non-national states were the multiethnic empires,
the Austrian Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Hungary,[18] the Russian Empire, the
Ottoman Empire, the British Empire and smaller states at what would now be called sub-national
level. The multi-ethnic empire was a monarchy ruled by a king, emperor or sultan. The
population belonged to many ethnic groups, and they spoke many languages. The empire was
dominated by one ethnic group, and their language was usually the language of public
administration. The ruling dynasty was usually, but not always, from that group.
This type of state is not specifically European: such empires existed on all continents, except
Australia and Antarctica. Some of the smaller European states were not so ethnically diverse, but
were also dynastic states, ruled by a royal house. Their territory could expand by royal
intermarriage or merge with another state when the dynasty merged. In some parts of Europe,
notably Germany, very small territorial units existed. They were recognised by their neighbours
as independent, and had their own government and laws. Some were ruled by princes or other
hereditary rulers, some were governed by bishops or abbots. Because they were so small,
however, they had no separate language or culture: the inhabitants shared the language of the
surrounding region.

33

In some cases these states were simply overthrown by nationalist uprisings in the 19th century.
Liberal ideas of free trade played a role in German unification, which was preceded by a customs
union, the Zollverein. However, the Austro-Prussian War, and the German alliances in the
Franco-Prussian War, were decisive in the unification. The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the
Ottoman Empire broke up after the First World War and the Russian Empire became the Soviet
Union, after the Russian Civil War.
A few of the smaller states survived: the independent principalities of Liechtenstein, Andorra,
Monaco, and the republic of San Marino. (Vatican City is different. Although there was a larger
Papal State, it was created in its present form by the 1929 Lateran treaties between Italy and the
Roman Catholic Church.)
Characteristics of the nation state
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article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed. (October 2015)
"Legitimate states that govern effectively and dynamic industrial economies are widely regarded
today as the defining characteristics of a modern nation-state."[19]
Nation states have their own characteristics, differing from those of the pre-national states. For a
start, they have a different attitude to their territory when compared with dynastic monarchies: it
is semisacred and nontransferable. No nation would swap territory with other states simply, for
example, because the king's daughter married. They have a different type of border, in principle
defined only by the area of settlement of the national group, although many nation states also
sought natural borders (rivers, mountain ranges). They are constantly changing in size and power
because of the limited restrictions of their borders.
The most noticeable characteristic is the degree to which nation states use the state as an
instrument of national unity, in economic, social and cultural life.
The nation state promoted economic unity, by abolishing internal customs and tolls. In Germany,
that process, the creation of the Zollverein, preceded formal national unity. Nation states
typically have a policy to create and maintain a national transportation infrastructure, facilitating
trade and travel. In 19th-century Europe, the expansion of the rail transport networks was at first
largely a matter for private railway companies, but gradually came under control of the national
governments. The French rail network, with its main lines radiating from Paris to all corners of
France, is often seen as a reflection of the centralised French nation state, which directed its
construction. Nation states continue to build, for instance, specifically national motorway
networks. Specifically transnational infrastructure programmes, such as the Trans-European
Networks, are a recent innovation.
The nation states typically had a more centralised and uniform public administration than its
imperial predecessors: they were smaller, and the population less diverse. (The internal diversity
of the Ottoman Empire, for instance, was very great.) After the 19th-century triumph of the
34

nation state in Europe, regional identity was subordinate to national identity, in regions such as
Alsace-Lorraine, Catalonia, Brittany and Corsica. In many cases, the regional administration was
also subordinated to central (national) government. This process was partially reversed from the
1970s onward, with the introduction of various forms of regional autonomy, in formerly
centralised states such as France.
The most obvious impact of the nation state, as compared to its non-national predecessors, is the
creation of a uniform national culture, through state policy. The model of the nation state implies
that its population constitutes a nation, united by a common descent, a common language and
many forms of shared culture. When the implied unity was absent, the nation state often tried to
create it. It promoted a uniform national language, through language policy. The creation of
national systems of compulsory primary education and a relatively uniform curriculum in
secondary schools, was the most effective instrument in the spread of the national languages. The
schools also taught the national history, often in a propagandistic and mythologised version, and
(especially during conflicts) some nation states still teach this kind of history.[20]
Language and cultural policy was sometimes negative, aimed at the suppression of non-national
elements. Language prohibitions were sometimes used to accelerate the adoption of national
languages and the decline of minority languages (see examples: Anglicisation, Czechization,
Francisation, Germanisation, Magyarisation, Polonisation, Russification, Serbization,
Slovakisation).
In some cases, these policies triggered bitter conflicts and further ethnic separatism. But where it
worked, the cultural uniformity and homogeneity of the population increased. Conversely, the
cultural divergence at the border became sharper: in theory, a uniform French identity extends
from the Atlantic coast to the Rhine, and on the other bank of the Rhine, a uniform German
identity begins. To enforce that model, both sides have divergent language policy and
educational systems, although the linguistic boundary is in fact well inside France, and the
Alsace region changed hands four times between 1870 and 1945.
The nation state in practice
See also: Monoethnicity

Largest ethnic group or race as percentage of total population:

Dark yellow: 85% or more are from majority ethnicity

35

Yellow: 65%-84% are from majority ethnicity

Light yellow: 64% or fewer are from majority ethnicity

Dark blue: 85% or more are from majority race

Blue: 65%-84% are from majority race

Light blue: 64% or fewer are from majority race

Source: The World Factbook, with data as of 20002008.

In some cases, the geographic boundaries of an ethnic population and a political state largely
coincide. In these cases, there is little immigration or emigration, few members of ethnic
minorities, and few members of the "home" ethnicity living in other countries.
Examples of nation states where ethnic groups make up more than 95% of the population include
the following:

Albania: The vast majority of the population is ethnically Albanian at about 98.6% of the
population, with the remainder consisting of a few small ethnic minorities.

Armenia: The vast majority of Armenia's population consists of ethnic Armenians at

about 98% of the population, with the remainder consisting of a few small ethnic
minorities.

Bangladesh: The vast majority ethnic group of Bangladesh are the Bengali people,
comprising 98% of the population, with the remainder consisting of mostly Bihari
migrants and indigenous tribal groups. Therefore, Bangladeshi society is to a great extent
linguistically and culturally homogeneous, with very small populations of foreign
expatriates and workers, although there is a substantial number of Bengali workers living
abroad.

Egypt: The vast majority of Egypt's population consists of ethnic Egyptians at about 99%
of the population, with the remainder consisting of a few small ethnic minorities, as well
as refugees or asylum seekers. Modern Egyptian identity is closely tied to the geography
of Egypt and its long history; its development over the centuries saw overlapping or
conflicting ideologies. Though today an Arabic-speaking people, that aspect constitutes
for Egyptians a cultural dimension of their identity, not a necessary attribute of or prop
for their national political being. Today most Egyptians see themselves, their history,
culture and language (the Egyptian variant of Arabic) as specifically Egyptian and at the
same time as part of the Arab world.

Estonia: Defined as a nation state in its 1920 constitution[citation needed], up until the period of
Soviet colonialisation, Estonia was historically a very homogenous state with 88.2% of
36

residents being Estonians, 8.2% Russians, 1.5% Germans and 0.4% Jews according to the
1934 census.[21][22] As a result of Soviet policies the demographic situation significantly
changed with the arrival of Russian speaking settlers. Today Estonians form 69%,
Russians 25.4%, Ukrainians 2.04% and Belarusians 1.1% of the population(2012).[23] A
significant proportion of the inhabitants (84.1%) are citizens of Estonia, around 7.3% are
citizens of Russia and 7.0% as yet undefined citizenship (2010).[21][23]

Hungary: The Hungarians (or Magyar) people consist of about 95% of the population,
with a small Roma and German minority: see Demographics of Hungary.

Iceland: Although the inhabitants are ethnically related to other Scandinavian groups, the
national culture and language are found only in Iceland. There are no cross-border
minorities as the nearest land is too far away: see Demographics of Iceland

Ainu, an ethnic minority people from Japan (between 1863 and early 1870s).

Japan: Japan is also traditionally seen as an example of a nation state and also the largest
of the nation states, with population in excess of 120 million. It should be noted that
Japan has a small number of minorities such as Ryky peoples, Koreans and Chinese,
and on the northern island of Hokkaid, the indigenous Ainu minority. However, they are
either numerically insignificant (Ainu), their difference is not as pronounced (though
Ryukyuan culture is closely related to Japanese culture, it is nonetheless distinctive in
that it historically received much more influence from China and has separate political
and nonpolitical and religious traditions) or well assimilated (Zainichi population is
collapsing due to assimilation/naturalisation).

Lebanon: The Arabic-speaking Lebanese consist at about 95% of the population, with the
remainder consisting of a few small ethnic minorities, as well as refugees or asylum
seekers. Modern Lebanese identity is closely tied to the geography of Lebanon and its
history. Although they are now an Arabic-speaking people and ethnically homogeneous,
its identity oversees overlapping or conflicting ideologies between its Phoenician heritage
and Arab heritage. While many Lebanese regard themselves as Arab, other Lebanese
regard themselves, their history, and their culture as Phoenician and not Arab, while still
other Lebanese regard themselves as both.

Lesotho: Lesotho's ethno-linguistic structure consists almost entirely of the Basotho

(singular Mosotho), a Bantu-speaking people; about 99.7% of the population are Basotho.

Maldives: The vast majority of the population is ethnically Dhivehi at about 98% of the
population, with the remainder consisting of foreign workers; there are no indigenous
ethnic minorities.

Malta: The vast majority of the population is ethnically Maltese at about 95.3% of the
population, with the remainder consisting of a few small ethnic minorities.
37

Mongolia: The vast majority of the population is ethnically Mongol at about 95.0% of the
population, with the remainder consisting of a few ethnic minorities included in Kazakhs.

North and South Korea are among the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous in
the world. Particularly in reclusive North Korea, there are very few ethnic minority
groups and expatriate foreigners.

Poland: After World War II, with the genocide of the Jews by the invading German Nazis
during the Holocaust, the expulsion of Germans after World War II and the loss of eastern
territories (Kresy), 96.7% of the people of Poland claim Polish nationality, while 97.8%
declare that they speak Polish at home (Census 2002[citation needed]).

Several Polynesian countries such as Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu, etc.[citation needed]

Portugal: Although surrounded by other lands and people, the Portuguese nation has
occupied the same territory since the romanization or latinization of the native population
during the Roman era. The modern Portuguese nation is a very old amalgam of formerly
distinct historical populations that passed through and settled in the territory of modern
Portugal: native Iberian peoples, Celts, ancient Mediterraneans (Greeks, Phoenicians,
Romans, Jews), invading Germanic peoples like the Suebi and the Visigoths, and Muslim
Arabs and Berbers. Most Berber/Arab people and the Jews were expelled from the
Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista and the repopulation by Christians.

San Marino: The Sammarinese make up about 97% of the population and all speak Italian
and are ethnically and linguisticially identical to Italians. San Marino is a landlocked
enclave, completely surrounded by Italy. The state has a population of approximately
30,000, including 1,000 foreigners, most of whom are Italians.

Swaziland: The vast majority of the population is ethnically Swazi at about 98.6% of the
population, with the remainder consisting of a few small ethnic minorities.

The notion of a unifying "national identity" also extends to countries that host multiple ethnic or
language groups, such as India and China. For example, Switzerland is constitutionally a
confederation of cantons, and has four official languages, but it has also a 'Swiss' national
identity, a national history and a classic national hero, Wilhelm Tell.[24]
Innumerable conflicts have arisen where political boundaries did not correspond with ethnic or
cultural boundaries. For one example, the Hatay Province was transferred to Turkey from Syria
after the minority-Turkish population complained of mistreatment. The traditional homeland of
the Kurdish people extends between northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some
of its inhabitants call for the creation of an independent Kurdistan, citing mistreatment by the
Turkish and Iraqi governments. An armed conflict between the separatist Kurdistan Workers
Party and the Turkish government over this issue has been ongoing since 1984.

38

After World War II in the Josip Broz Tito era, nationalism was appealed to for uniting South Slav
peoples. Later in the 20th century, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, leaders appealed to
ancient ethnic feuds or tensions that ignited conflict between the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, as
well Bosnians, Montenegrins and Macedonians, eventually breaking up the long collaboration of
peoples and ethnic cleansing was carried out in the Balkans, resulting in the destruction of the
formerly communist republic and produced the civil wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992
95, resulted in mass population displacements and segregation that radically altered what was
once a highly diverse and intermixed ethnic makeup of the region. These conflicts were largely
about creating a new political framework of states, each of which would be ethnically and
politically homogeneous. Serbians, Croatians and Bosnians insisted they were ethnically distinct
although many communities had a long history of intermarriage. All could speak the common
Serbo-Croatian Language. Presently Slovenia (89% Slovene), Croatia (88% Croat) and Serbia
(83% Serb) could be classified as nation states per se, whereas Macedonia (66% Macedonian),
Montenegro (42% Montenegrin) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (47% Bosniak) are multinational
states.

Ethnolinguistic map of mainland China and Taiwan

Belgium is a classic example of a state that is not a nation state. The state was formed by
secession from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1830, whose neutrality and integrity
was protected by the Treaty of London 1839; thus it served as a buffer state after the
Napoleonitic Wars between the European powers France, Prussia (after 1871 the German
Empire) and the United Kingdom until World War I, when its neutrality was breached by the
Germans. Currently, Belgium is divided between the Flemings in the north and the Frenchspeaking or the German-speaking population in the south. The Flemish population in the north
speaks Dutch, the Walloon population in the south speaks French and/or German. The Brussels
population speaks French and/or Dutch.
The Flemish identity is also cultural, and there is a strong separatist movement espoused by the
political parties, the right-wing Vlaams Belang and the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie. The
Francophone Walloon identity of Belgium is linguistically distinct and regionalist. There is also
39

is unitary Belgian nationalism, several versions of a Greater Netherlands ideal, and a Germanspeaking community of Belgium annexed from Germany in 1920, and re-annexed by Germany
in 19401944. However these ideologies are all very marginal and politically insignificant during
elections.
China covers a large geographic area and uses the concept of "Zhonghua minzu" or Chinese
nationality, in the sense of ethnic groups, but it also officially recognizes the majority Han ethnic
group which accounts for over 90% of the population, and no fewer than 55 ethnic national
minorities.
According to Philip G. Roeder, Moldova is an example of a Soviet era "segment-state"
(Moldavian SSR), where the "nation-state project of the segment-state trumped the nation-state
project of prior statehood. In Moldova, despite strong agitation from university faculty and
students for reunification with Romania, the nation-state project forged within the Moldavian
SSR trumped the project for a return to the interwar nation-state project of Greater Romania."[25]
See Controversy over linguistic and ethnic identity in Moldova for further details.
Exceptional cases
United Kingdom

Map of the United Kingdom showing its four constituent countries.

The United Kingdom is an unusual example of a nation state, due to its "countries within a
country" status. The United Kingdom, which is formed by the union of England, Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland, is a unitary state formed initially by the merger of two independent
kingdoms, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, but the Treaty of Union
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(1707) that set out the agreed terms has ensured the continuation of distinct features of each
state, including separate legal systems and separate national churches.
In 2003, the British Government described the United Kingdom as "countries within a country".
[26]
While the Office for National Statistics and others describe the United Kingdom as a "nation
state",[27][28] others, including a then Prime Minister, describe it as a "multinational state",[29][30][31]
and the term Home Nations is used to describe the four national teams that represent the four
nations of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales).[32]
Kingdom of the Netherlands
A similar unusual example is the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As of 10 October 2010, the
Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of four countries:[33]

Netherlands proper

Aruba

Curaao

Sint Maarten

Each is expressly designated as a land in Dutch law by the Charter for the Kingdom of the
Netherlands.[34] Unlike the German Lnder and the Austrian Bundeslnder, landen is consistently
translated as "countries" by the Dutch government.[35][36][37]
Israel
Israel was founded as a Jewish state in 1948. Its "Basic Laws" describe it as both a Jewish and a
democratic state. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 75.7% of Israel's
population is Jewish.[38] Arabs, who make up 20.4% of the population, are the largest ethnic
minority in Israel. Israel also has very small communities of Armenians, Circassians, Assyrians,
Samaritans, and persons of some Jewish heritage.[citation needed] There are also some non-Jewish
spouses of Israeli Jews. However, these communities are very small, and usually number only in
the hundreds or thousands.[citation needed]
Pakistan
Pakistan, even being an ethnically diverse country and officially a federation, is regarded as a
nation state[39] due to its ideological basis on which it was given independence from British India
as a separate nation rather than as part of a unified India. Different ethnic groups in Pakistan are
strongly bonded by their common Muslim identity, common cultural and social values, common
historical heritage, a national Lingua franca (Urdu) and joint political, strategic and economic
interests.[39][40]
Minorities
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removed. (October 2015)
The most obvious deviation from the ideal of 'one nation, one state', is the presence of minorities,
especially ethnic minorities, which are clearly not members of the majority nation. An ethnic
nationalist definition of a nation is necessarily exclusive: ethnic nations typically do not have
open membership. In most cases, there is a clear idea that surrounding nations are different, and
that includes members of those nations who live on the 'wrong side' of the border. Historical
examples of groups, who have been specifically singled out as outsiders, are the Roma and Jews
in Europe.
Negative responses to minorities within the nation state have ranged from cultural assimilation
enforced by the state, to expulsion, persecution, violence, and extermination. The assimilation
policies are usually enforced by the state, but violence against minorities is not always state
initiated: it can occur in the form of mob violence such as lynching or pogroms. Nation states are
responsible for some of the worst historical examples of violence against minorities: minorities
not considered part of the nation.
However, many nation states accept specific minorities as being part of the nation, and the term
national minority is often used in this sense. The Sorbs in Germany are an example: for centuries
they have lived in German-speaking states, surrounded by a much larger ethnic German
population, and they have no other historical territory. They are now generally considered to be
part of the German nation and are accepted as such by the Federal Republic of Germany, which
constitutionally guarantees their cultural rights. Of the thousands of ethnic and cultural
minorities in nation states across the world, only a few have this level of acceptance and
protection.
Multiculturalism is an official policy in many states, establishing the ideal of peaceful existence
among multiple ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groups. Many nations have laws protecting
minority rights.
When national boundaries that do not match ethnic boundaries are drawn, such as in the Balkans
and Central Asia, ethnic tension, massacres and even genocide, sometimes has occurred
historically (see Bosnian genocide and 2010 ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan).
Future
It has been speculated by both proponents of globalization and various science fiction writers
that the concept of a nation state may disappear with the ever-increasingly interconnected nature
of the world.[15][41][42] Such ideas are sometimes expressed around concepts of a world
government. Another possibility is a societal collapse and move into communal anarchy or zero
world government, in which nation states no longer exist and government is done on the local
level based on a global ethic of human rights.[original research?]

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This falls into line with the concept of internationalism, which states that sovereignty is an
outdated concept and a barrier to achieving peace and harmony in the world, thus also stating
that nation states are also a similar outdated concept.
Globalization especially has helped to bring about the discussion about the disappearance of
nation states, as global trade and the rise of the concepts of a 'global citizen' and a common
identity have helped to reduce differences and 'distances' between individual nation states,
especially with regards to the internet.[43]
Clash of civilizations
The theory of the clash of civilizations lies in direct contrast to cosmopolitan theories about an
ever more-connected world that no longer requires nation states. According to political scientist
Samuel P. Huntington, people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of
conflict in the postCold War world.
The theory was originally formulated in a 1992 lecture[44] at the American Enterprise Institute,
which was then developed in a 1993 Foreign Affairs article titled "The Clash of Civilizations?",
[45]
in response to Francis Fukuyama's 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man.
Huntington later expanded his thesis in a 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the
Remaking of World Order.
Huntington began his thinking by surveying the diverse theories about the nature of global
politics in the postCold War period. Some theorists and writers argued that human rights, liberal
democracy and capitalist free market economics had become the only remaining ideological
alternative for nations in the postCold War world. Specifically, Francis Fukuyama, in The End
of History and the Last Man, argued that the world had reached a Hegelian "end of history".
Huntington believed that while the age of ideology had ended, the world had reverted only to a
normal state of affairs characterized by cultural conflict. In his thesis, he argued that the primary
axis of conflict in the future will be along cultural and religious lines.
As an extension, he posits that the concept of different civilizations, as the highest rank of
cultural identity, will become increasingly useful in analyzing the potential for conflict.
In the 1993 Foreign Affairs article, Huntington writes:
It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be
primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and
the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most
powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur
between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will
dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of
the future.[45]
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Sandra Joireman suggests that Huntington may be characterised as a neo-primordialist, as, while
he sees people as having strong ties to their ethnicity, he does not believe that these ties have
always existed.[46]
Historiography
Historians often look to the past to find the origins of a particular nation state. Indeed, they often
put so much emphasis on the importance of the nation state in modern times, that they distort the
history of earlier periods in order to emphasize the question of origins. Lansing and English
argue that much of the medieval history of Europe was structured to follow the historical winners
especially the nation states that emerged around Paris and London. Important developments
that did not directly lead to a nation state get neglected, they argue:
one effect of this approach has been to privilege historical winners, aspects of medieval
Europe that became important in later centuries, above all the nation state.... Arguably the
liveliest cultural innovation in the 13th century was Mediterranean, centered on Frederick
II's polyglot court and administration in Palermo....Sicily and the Italian South in later
centuries suffered a long slide into overtaxed poverty and marginality. Textbook
narratives therefore focus not on medieval Palermo, with its Muslim and Jewish
bureaucracies and Arabic-speaking monarch, but on the historical winners, Paris and
London.[47]

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