Can the weak win?
Let’s assume and present two example countries in a mathematical equation: let’s say, if Country 1 = X then Country 2 = 10X In other words Country 2 is 10 times bigger than Country 1 in terms of its size, economy, resources, population, army, arsenal, security intelligence etc. Question: Which country do you think will win if they were to have war? It’s a no-brainer; Country 2…. Right? Suppose we were to study all the wars in the last 200 years in this world where very large countries (the 10X types) have had wars with very small countries (the X types), how often do you think the bigger side won? Most of us, would like to answer the number close to 100%. After all how can you overlook the ‘10 times’ difference? It’s actually a lot. But the answer might surprise you!! International Relations Professor and author of the book “How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict” Ivan Arreguin-Toft did the calculation few years ago and concluded, it’s