Asymmetric Warfare: Politics and Cultures of Violence in the Modern Era (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
The forces that fight asymmetric wars are so distinct that one side
avoids direct military confrontation in favor of political, social, or
otherwise unorthodox means of resistance. These conflicts have been a
mainstay of modern times, though scholars have often separated them into
various designations by era. Observers have referred, in chronological
order, to Indian warfare, petite guerre (small war), guerrilla warfare,
irregular or revolutionary war, and terrorism. The proliferation of
labels over time has obscured the continuity of asymmetric wars
throughout modernity. Stark distinctions in resources and capabilities
have shaped the reasons why states and societies have decided to fight,
and the manner in which they have fought. Across the modern era,
mismatches arose in the domains of technology, intelligence production,
and law. But in recent decades, so-called weak powers have neutralized
many of the typical advantages of strong military states.
Jacob Hagstrom is an army veteran and historian. He earned a PhD in
history from Indiana University, Bloomington, and taught courses at the
Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina.
Chris Millington is Professor of Modern European History and lead of the Histories and Cultures of Conflict research group at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is the author of eight books including Murder in Marseille: Right-Wing Terrorism in 1930s Europe ((Manchester University Press, 2025), The Invention of Terrorism in France, 1904-1939 (Stanford University press, 2023), and France in the Second World War Collaboration, Resistance, Holocaust, Empire (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).
