CONCEPT OF ASSYMETRISM
Violence pretty much sums up the history of mankind . It has been an inherent quality of man since the birth of life on this planet. Initially weapons like knifes and fire were discovered to fight wild animals and for food . This was transformed to iron swords, Arrows, cannons etc. Today mankind possess an extremely lethal and sophisticated weaponry from assault rifles to hydrogen bombs. Yet what has been constant is the lust for land. In this lust it has tormented kingdom’s and slaughtered innocents . In this context assymetric war is seen as a modern way to fulfill the strategic objectives of a state. Let us consider a simple illustration. Assume there to be two states. The first state is extremely powerful and greater than the second. Now if both are nemesis. Logically the second state cannot engage in a direct confrontation as it would be suicide to do so understanding the power of the first nation. However mordern solution which was devised to this problem was shadow warfare. What it meant simply was the fact that mercenaries were created through brainwashing normal people on religious and monetary grounds. These mercenaries being normal citizens can cross borders easily and so they could target important assets of the country including military structure or a public place. The impact would be massive as on one end you are creating fear in the minds of people which will force the lawmakers to accede to the political objectives of a group created. On the other hand you are destabilizing a strong country without engaging in a direct confrontation. This option is economically viable. As you only need to invest a very small amount in this process. These group of mercenaries today are termed as terrorist organizations.
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY.
Middle East and Asia were the first regions to have this concept tested. One of the first country to do so was Iran. Understanding it’s national security priorities Iran created Qudz force for clandestine extraterrestrial operations. Iran established Hezbollah which achieved driving out America and Israel from Lebanon. It also established major shiate millitant organization thus giving them the geopolitical space today to pull the strings in the region. In 1979 Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The primary objective was to support PDPA which supported communist ideology. However this invasion resulted in uniting tribal groups which were before fighting each other. The Americans realising an opportunity funded these tribals and provided them mordern weaponry including stingers. The fallout being in 1989 Soviets had to leave Afghanistan. What came out from this conflict was a regressive fundamentalist group named TALIBAN which was formed in South Kandahar. Taliban became an harbinger of political Islam. In Asia Pakistan actively utilised this concept. Being a theocratic Muslim state it easily directed mercenaries to Afghanistan, Kashmir, Iran this policy was further extended to carry lone wolf attacks in metropolitan areas of world.
THE BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT
The biggest fallout of this concept was the creation of ISIS. ISIS still dispersed is a fundamentalist Islamic organization whose objective is to establish Caliphate and encompass Muslims across the world. They are staunch followers of salafism and believe in achieving there political objectives through Jihad. Al-zarqawi a semi- literate Jordanian thug laid the early foundations of this group. Zarqawi fought actively in Afghanistan but after soviets left he came back to Iraq . Soon zarqawi was captured however the major turning point was America invading Iraq. After toppling saddam Hussain out of power it disbanded Iraq army. This lead to thousands of angry sunni soldiers joining zarqawi’s rebel group. Soon after this a group was formed named Islamic State of Iraq. A young scholar Al- Bhagdadi headed it. ISI launched attacks on prisons to free mujahids. Many Muslims across the world were attracted by the religious ideology of ISI and joined the organization. In 2011 Arab Spring happened. Using this as an opportunity it supported the rebel groups in Syria who wanted to throw Bashar-Al-Assad out of power. Through this it expanded itself in Syria. The ISIS gained control of tactically important area including oil fields etc. The ISIS grew stronger and it’s technological capability was the greatest as compared to any other millitant group. It possesed UAV’s, IED’s etc. ISIS was the most systematic organization in the world with a proper power structure in place. Every millitant organization (local) operating had to unify under ISIS and a waliyah was chosen to look over functioning and operations. Many experts have speculated the fact that it’s growth has been majorly possible because of an anonymous power centre actively funding it. ISIS expanded itself across the word it appointed waliyah’s in Libya, Afghanistan (khorasan), Egypt, North Caracas, Philippines, Malaysia, Trinidad etc. It’s blitzcrieg also included carrying out attacks in places as distant as Paris. Thus proving to be a major threat to the world
FIGHTING THIS MENACE.
Any terrorist organization requires two things to sustain 1.Monetary Funding 2.Religious Ideology.Today we are heavily investing on internal security which includes measures like using technology improving covert capability of our security agencies. Strengthening military. But all of this cannot help us in fighting terrorism. The enemy we are fighting is not a trained soldier of a professional army who will take you head on rather you are fighting a shadow war the enemy is similar to normal citizen thus difficult to detect. The first method to fight this war is acting on the monetary channels which are the source of funding. If you can cut funding you would delocalise and destabilize an millitant organization. Another logical approach is investing in the organization. Let us say an organization has a budget of 100 crore. If you could invest more than 100 crore in the group it will automatically work for you. Acting on religious moderation would require greater international co-operation. If we are to fight assymetrism it is essential that world acts on it together unfortunately we haven’t even at this point of time established definition of terrorism allowing distinction of bad and good terrorism. International co-operation is the key
Geopolitical Matrix 