Asymmetric warfare

Overview
Asymmetric warfare "originally referred to war between two or more actors or groups whose relative power differs significantly. Contemporary military thinkers tend to broaden this to include asymmetry of strategy or tactics".

Applicability
Both the war on terror and the war on drugs are forms of asymmetric warfare in that the enemy is scattered among populations with whom we are not at war, thus preventing the use of large-scale weaponry most of the time, and generally precluding the use of tactics which would be effective against a geopolitical enemy.