Various authors have noted that violence is often a double-edged sword within combat settings, particularly those involving a resistance movement fighting an asymmetric conflict against the security forces of a stronger incumbent government, with both sides vying for the sympathies of a local population. Atkinson and Kress noted that "on the one hand violence is needed to fight the other side and perhaps deter individuals in the population from supporting the other side, but on the other hand it can turn the population against the source of that violence."
