David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

country wins.
Arreguín-Toft then asked the question
slightly differently. What happens in
wars between the strong and the weak
when the weak side does as David did
and refuses to fight the way the bigger
side wants to fight, using unconventional
or guerrilla tactics? The answer: in
those cases, the weaker party’s winning
percentage climbs from 28.5 percent to
63.6 percent. To put that in perspective,
the United States’ population is ten times
the size of Canada’s. If the two countries
went to war and Canada chose to fight
unconventionally, history would suggest
that you ought to put your money on
Canada.
We think of underdog victories as