from Docuticker by Shirl Kennedy http://www.docuticker.com/?p=15367
Asymmetry: Strategies for Adapting to Contemporary Security Threats (PDF; 1.15 MB) http://www.nationalstrategy.com/Asymmetry.Summer07NSFR.pdf Source: National Strategy Forum Review (Summer 2007) The theme of this issue of the National Strategy Forum Review is asymmetry - a lack of balance, proportion, or harmony. Since the demise of the former Soviet union in 1991, the US has enjoyed its asymmetric position and advantage as the sole global superpower. this has resulted in US foreign policymakers regarding US primacy as a fundamental premise - that the US can marginalize all other states and achieve most of its strategic objectives with impunity. the US is the most powerful state based on its economy, military, and dominant position in global politics. The uncomfortable reality is that US power has been diminished because of adverse asymmetry. Asymmetry was favorable when, in the good old days five years ago, the US could exercise its asymmetric power. However, the lesson learned by the US in iraq is that asymmetry is bad when a relatively weak force demonstrates that it can stultify US military forces and impede iraq's progress towards democratization by the tactical use of suicide bombers and roadside bombs. if the US could prevent these bombings - remove them from the equation - by all accounts, there would be measurable success in iraq. [...]
