Maritime asymmetric warfare strategy for smaller states: lessons from Ukraine

Ukraine’s success against Russia’s Black Sea fleet has reignited the debate on the employment of asymmetric warfare at the state level. However, this asymmetric conflict comes with its own set of challenges and advantages. Rather than focusing on specific platforms, which we term as ‘platform centric’, smaller states should rather focus on wide-ranging capabilities in what we term the ‘capability centric approach’, in order to mitigate the power asymmetry potentially facing them. We conclude that by utilising the ‘capability centric approach’ smaller states would not only address the power asymmetry but also enjoy the resultant deterrent effects of having such capabilities.