Asymmetric conflicts in the British Empire in the writings of W. Churchill

Abstract

This paper analyzes the materials of Winston Churchill of the first third of the XX century, dedicated to his participation in asymmetric military conflicts on the periphery of the British colonial empire. First, it allows us to consider the concept of asymmetric conflict in relation to the British army at the turn of the century and after the First World War. Secondly it allows us to analyze methods, forms and ways of waging war in the conditions of unequal power capabilities, which help to get to know the way of the colonial margins, which was formed by the British in the context of ongoing conflicts. The paper traces a clear chronology in accordance with the works of Winston Churchill: the Cuban War of Independence, the uprising of the Pashtun tribes in Malakand, the Mahdist uprising in Sudan, the second Anglo-Boer War, and the Irish War of Independence. Winston Churchill served in the British Army personally, at the same time he served as a war correspondent covering military events from the front line. Only the Irish War of Independence is knocked out of the chain of events. It was an asymmetric military conflict, perceived by W. Churchill from a completely different perspective: through the prism of political experience and from the height of his position of a Minister of Colonies. In the paper we conclude that the colonial era is the basis for the formation of the theoretical component of the asymmetric conflict concept.