Much about the world has been "asymmetric" since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
When military planners use the word asymmetric, they are referring to the types of strategies and tactics used by those who cannot compete in a conventional war. The weak and desperate resort to asymmetric measures against the strong, such as turning passenger airliners into guided missiles.
The war in Afghanistan has exposed asymmetries of other kinds. Stealth bombers have targeted opponents operating from caves. A crucial fuel to help friendly ground forces coordinate with advanced aircraft has been horse feed. To promote political stability in Afghanistan, the world's leading democracies have sought the blessing of an aging king upon an intertribal government.
The most striking asymmetries, or ironies, could be yet to come. A terrorist network has reached back to the 11th century to declare war against "the new Jewish-Crusader campaign." Yet the ruinous rekindling of ancient animosities may, in fact, be accelerating the resolution of other entrenched conflicts. A long-delayed disarmament has begun in Northern Ireland. Russian and Chechen envoys speak of ending the war in Chechnya. Russia and NATO almost look like allies. There is some evidence that each of these is part of the fallout of Sept. 11.
Plenty of backward thinking still persists around the world, as is evident in the stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians. But Sept. 11 was a wake-up call to many, particularly to America, which has both awakened to the need for homeland defense and reawakened to the need for international collaboration.
Our cover story proposes several specific ways to defeat terrorism, from completely reorganizing our intelligence bureaucracy to consistently promoting democracy around the world. Rising to these challenges would produce the most beautiful asymmetry of all: The maniacal attack on America would have spurred it to become more resilient within and more of a leader without.
--John Godges
Correction
A report in the summer 2001 issue of the RAND Review ("Shipshape: A Reorganized Military for a New Global Role") stated that "the NATO allies have roughly 300 medium-range airlifters, compared with about 200 in the U.S. Air Force." Those numbers are technically accurate, but a better comparison would have included in the U.S. total the approximately 320 additional medium-range airlifters (C-130s) operated by the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard.