Guerrilla Warfare Research Articles

Colonial experience and the theory of counter-guerrilla warfare in the USA: a symposium of RAND, April 16-20, 1962 as a historic source

This paper analyzes the materials of the symposium held by the RAND Corporation from 16 to 20 April 1962. Its purpose was to generalize the experience of past combat conflicts, which could contribute to an effective fight against insurgents in future conflicts. Twelve military officers of the armies of the United States, Britain, France and Australia participated in this symposium. All of them took part in counter-guerrilla operations around the world Algeria, China, Greece, Kenya, Laos, Malaya, Oman, South Vietnam and the Philippines. Their rich experience formed the basis of this symposium. The goals and objectives of the symposium, the features of the materials and the biographies of the participants are consecrated in details in the paper. The questions discussed at the meeting are discussed in details. They are characteristics and examples of guerrilla warfare; primary objectives of counterinsurgency and some effective organizational and operational approaches; tactics and techniques of counter-guerrilla warfare; principles and techniques of political action; psychological warfare and civil actions; intelligence and counterintelligence: problems and techniques of intelligence-gathering, and the importance of communications; British campaign in Kenya; selection of personnel for counterinsurgency; special role of the advisor; winning the Counterguerrilla War. The conclusion of the paper shows a special significance of the materials of this symposium for the study of military thought during the Cold War, and especially the influence of the colonial experience of European empires on US foreign policy.

ХВОРОБИ ТА ЇХ ЛІКУВАННЯ В ЖИТТІ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ ПОВСТАНЦІВ ЗАКЕРЗОННЯ (1944 – 1947 рр.)

The article deals with diseases and illnesses of participants of the movement of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) within the territory of Zakerzonnia (1944 – 1947). The article is based on wide base on sources mostly personal origin, the memoirs and diaries of UPA’s companies. A brief review of historiography and historical sources are represented also. The author starts with telling about few theoretical remarks about history of everyday life. The Most of contemporary research papers study external questions of medicine of UPA and OUN, for example organization and functional of the Ukrainian underground health service. The author emphasized that it is very important for modern Ukrainian history to use the methods and approaches of historical anthropology.It is stressed that Ukrainian insurgents struggled for their own health, and tried to treat diseases. The underground paramedics did everything possible for their patients. In most cases sick partisans were lying in sanitary posts in villages and special underground bunkers. Also there were insufficient professional physician personnel in the units of the UPA Medical Service. Sometimes doctors visited sick UPA soldiers in forest hospitals or temporary medical stations set up in villages. In some instances, wounded or sick insurgents and underground workers were given beds in city hospital, especially women. One of the most important tasks for UPA soldiers and medics was to obtain medications, bandages and other medical supplies.The author also briefly describes the instances of extremely marches through snowy territory and terrible frostbites of the Ukrainian partisans. The amount of most spread diseases is also present in this article. The venereal diseases among the soldiers of Ukrainian Insurgent Army and attitude of officers towards these incidents are scrutinized also in this article. Certain attention is paid to the studying of typhus and fever among the Ukrainian insurgents and unsanitary conditions of liberation struggle. Other illnesses which the author often mentions in the article included various types of gastroenteritis, vitamin deficiency, scabies, impetigo, pediculosis and pneumonia, flu, inflammation of the joints. When drugs were lacking, home remedies had to be applied. For example, a primitive form of immunotherapy which consisted of injecting the patient, even reception from rural pharmacists.In conclusion the author emphasized that the extreme conditions of guerrilla warfare increased the risk of the appearance of heterogeneous infectious diseases. The Ukrainian insurgents had to fight for their country in unsatisfactory hygienic conditions, which was an additional factor in the spread of sickness.

Sinai's Insurgency: Implications of Enhanced Guerilla Warfare

ABSTRACTThis article aims to explain the endurance of Sinai's insurgency despite its limited military capacity and resources, and the overwhelming man- and fire-power of the incumbent's regular and tribal forces. After reviewing the literature on how insurgents beat or survive strong incumbents, the article offers a short overview of historical developments and socio-political causes leading to the rise of Sinai Province and its military build-up. It then analyses, qualitatively and quantitatively, how Sinai Province fight, based on its original documents and releases as well as on interviews with individuals who fought against it. Finally, the article concludes with an explanation of why did the insurgency survive and, at times, expanded based on the quality of its military tactics. It also provides policy implications, as a result.

“Breaking juju,” breaking trade: Museums and the culture of iconoclasm in southern Nigeria

“Breaking juju,” breaking trade: Museums and the culture of iconoclasm in southern Nigeria

Waging insurgent warfare: lessons from the Vietcong to the Islamic State

Waging insurgent warfare: lessons from the Vietcong to the Islamic State

Book Review: Michael L. Gross, The Ethics of Insurgency: A Critical Guide to Just Guerrilla Warfare

Book Review: Michael L. Gross, <i>The Ethics of Insurgency: A Critical Guide to Just Guerrilla Warfare</i>

Mau-Mau War Rituals and Women Rebels in Kirinyaga County of Kenya (1952–1960): Retrieving Women Participation in Kenya’s Struggle for Independence

The Mau-Mau war of independence in Kenya was fought after the returnees of the First and Second World Wars (1919–1945), who were mainly Christians, succeeded in politicising the black majority in the then Kenyan colony (1920–1963) to demand justice across the colour divides, as a religio-ritual duty which climaxed in oaths. The first stage of the war was seen in the change of contents in the African ritualistic dances that young men and women had gotten used to. In time, the love songs became political and/or patriotic songs that prepared people for a major war that was in the offing. The second stage was the secretive binding oaths. The third stage was the repositioning of the rebels in terms of forest fighters, the combatants, who were to engage the British government in guerrilla warfare. The third stage also saw some rebels positioned as spies, oath administrators, resource mobilisers, food suppliers to the forest fighters, among other offices. In all these duty allocations within the rank-and-file of society, it is critically important to ask: Were these ritualistic oaths a poor imitation and/or mockery of ecclesiastical Eucharist? Were men and women fighters acting from a just war theory? What role did women play in this all-important war that inspired other liberation movements in Africa and beyond? In Kirinyaga County of Kenya, were there women combatants and/or supporters of Mau-Mau rebellion (1952–1960)? The materials in this article are primarily gathered through archival sources and through interviewing some of the participants.

The origins of Communist Unity: anti-colonialism and revolution in Iran’s tri-continental moment

This article analyses the historical emergence of the Organization of Communist Unity, which coalesced out of the National Front of Iran and its Organizations abroad. In the aftermath of the MI6/CIA-orchestrated 1953 coup d’état, a new generation of political activists left Iran for Europe and the United States to pursue their higher education. While politically active in the Organizations of the National Front Abroad, they gradually turned to revolutionary Marxism against the backdrop of the torrential waves of decolonization and resistance to imperial military interventions undulating across the Global South. This same constellation of activists was not only fiercely anti-imperialist, but also opposed any form of dependence on the U.S.S.R. or the People’s Republic of China. They would move from Europe and the United States to establish themselves in several locations across the Arab world, and pursue political activism and their advocacy of guerrilla warfare, as part of their ambition to launch a national liberation struggle against the Pahlavi regime. By examining Communist Unity’s predecessors and their manifold transnational ideological, political and logistical networks with like-minded revolutionary movements inside the Middle East, this article brings to the fore hitherto under-explored South–South connections, and situates Iran’s revolutionary opposition within the global moment of ‘1968’.

Rediscovering Irregular Warfare: Colin Gubbins and the Origins of Britain's Special Operations Executive by A.R.B. Linderman

<i>Rediscovering Irregular Warfare: Colin Gubbins and the Origins of Britain's Special Operations Executive</i> by A.R.B. Linderman

Colombia's Narcotics Nightmare: How the Drug Trade Destroyed Peace

Colombia's Narcotics Nightmare: How the Drug Trade Destroyed Peace

Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri

Review of: Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri, by Joseph M. Beilein Jr.

Is Terrorism Becoming an Effective Strategy to Achieve Political Aims?

Terrorism is the method of changing policies of decision-makers and behaviors of the wider society by instigating fear through violent acts. Terrorism can be categorized based on several criteria, such as political aim, timing, context and the target of the violent acts, as well as tools and tactics. Although terrorism might sometimes show aspects similar to other types of conflict, such as guerilla warfare, urban warfare, irregular warfare, civil war, and insurgency, it is different from them by its reliance on shock in instigating change. Nevertheless, since 9/11 the nature of terrorism has itself changed to some extent. Rather than focusing on symbolic power, the emphasis for terrorist organizations has shifted from the action’s symbolic meaning to more calculable consequences, like the territory gained, weapons accrued, the financial damage inflicted and most commonly the number of the dead and the injured. In the future, we may also see shift towards more knowledge-intense strategies as both terrorists and states adapt to current age of knowledge.

Keystones of Irregular Warfare

Abstract The current security environment is evolving towards a global complexity of unpredictable events. The risk of state and non-state actors attempting to achieve their goals through destabilization exists. In the operating environment, this implies a blurring of the boundaries between state and nonstate actors (such as insurgents, terrorists and criminals) and NATO may confront an adversary who uses traditional (conventional), irregular warfare or both (hybrid warfare). The aim of the article is to find, analyze and describe the key elements that fundamentally different irregular of traditional (conventional) and hybrid warfare.

Deployability Of Armed Forces In The Current Armed Conflicts

Abstract Achieving victory in nowadays armed conflicts by using of conventional military forces seems more and more difficult. Military solutions are not satisfying and used civilian-military effort still needs many improvements. So-called irregular warfare requires more regular or conventional capabilities than is usually necessary to win in regular warfare. The question is how to adapt armed forces for the nowadays irregular environment. How to educate, train and deploy armed forces? How to create a reliable tool of military power for using in irregular warfare?

A handbook for social change

Book review of Cristina Bicchieri: Norms in the wild: how to diagnose, measure, and change social norms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, 264 pp. “Philosophy isn’t useful for changing the world,” parents of philosophy students and Karl Marx tell us (at least about non-Marxist philosophy). Cristina Bicchieri’s new book Norms in the Wild provides an impressive antidote against this worry. It stands to change of social practices as Che Guevara’s Guerrilla Warfare stands to political revolutions. Bicchieri combines hands-on advice on how to change social practices with compelling theoretical analyses of social norms.

Sustainable practices through green guerrilla marketing – an innovative approach

Sustainability is the need of the hour. Organizations that align the interests of all their stakeholders – customers, investors and employees are considered to act for sustainable development. But some of the organizations compromise to this fact. They are rather busy exploiting the resources. Bluffing the customers for making quick profits has become a prevalent notion. Amidst all these selfish motives, they tend to forget about the repercussions which we and our planet may endure as a whole in near future. There are many evidences when responsible companies have proved themselves performing better in the long run.Green Guerrilla Marketing is an innovative concept, trying to figure out various ways to successfully market the products and at the same time acting ethically and socially responsible towards the sustainable development. It revolves around being conscious about 3Ps which are People, Profits and Planet. Guerrilla Marketing is an unconventional marketing strategy that focuses on attracting huge customer base with least amount of cost involved. Roots of Guerrilla Marketing can be traced to guerrilla warfare that was off-center warfare technique using unusual tactics by the armed civilians during Vietnam War in the 1960s. Since then this marketing concept has attracted many business houses. So far, Guerrilla Marketing was considered only as a creative tool for promoting ones’ product and services but now it can be seen as a responsible tool as well, which works toward a better society at large under the broad head of Green Guerrilla Marketing. Therefore, the paper is a pioneer attempt in understanding the potential of Green Guerrilla Marketing in the light of both sustainability and innovation at the same time. Also, it discusses various guerrilla techniques to market the products ethically without compromising on the profits. In the end, the paper also evaluates the examples to examine the concept.

Leadership in the Colombian Military Forces: A comprehensive experience in the fight against terrorism

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Colombia has fought an irregular war, including guerrilla warfare and a counterinsurgency generated by different armed groups operating within the margins of the law (Sánchez-Cabarcas, 2009). These groups have victimized the nation with violence surrounding the drug trade, forced displacement, forced disappearances and terrorism. The Colombian National Army has played a great role in this irregular war where it has won the victory by its position as a leader throughout Colombia with different actions in education and in full compliance with international provisions related to Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law and the strategic positioning of the defense sector.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Terrorism and fear: do terrorists really want to scare?

ABSTRACTThere is a widespread tendency among academics, state institutions and international organisations to regard intention to cause fear and intimidation as a key definitional characteristic of terrorism. This article argues that such a conceptualisation of terrorism is unfounded. A survey of mainstream terrorist doctrines (propaganda by the deed, foco theory–urban guerrilla warfare and armed propaganda, and jihadist doctrines) and writings of several pre-eminent terrorist ideologues provides little evidence to suggest that the main tactical goal of terrorism is to spread fear and intimidation. Rather, regardless of their ideological orientation and the historical period in which they operated, terrorists seem to be preoccupied with similar goals: mobilising what they regard to be their constituency, avenging their fallen comrades, extracting retribution for their allegedly wronged constituency, or, simply, with the physical destruction of their perceived enemies. This survey is complemented with a number of “crucial case studies”, where “most-likely cases” of terrorist justification of indiscriminate attacks and a detailed analysis of terrorist literature, which explicitly deals with the question of “fear”, are used to test the validity of the claim that terrorists aim to cause fear and intimidation. In both type of cases the hypothesis is invalidated. In cases of justification of indiscriminate attacks, there is no evidence to suggest that the aim of the terrorists is to spread fear and intimidation. Moreover, in the case of one particular terrorist ideologue who explicitly addresses the question of fear, the analysis of the texts indicates that fear among a population is not seen as an aim to be achieved but as an obstacle for mass mobilisation: an obstacle, which can only be overcome by the terrorist tactics. Thus, in this particular “most-likely case” the aim of terrorist tactics turns out to be encouraging masses for insurrection rather than intimidating them.

People’s war antithesis: Che Guevara and the mythology of Focismo

This paper re-evaluates the role and significance of Che Guevara and focismo in the strategic debate on insurgent warfare. It argues that Guevara’s approach to making revolution in Latin America and the Third World emerged out of his own earlier escapades as a restless tourist travelling through South and Central America in the early 1950s. Guevara’s life was one marked by a struggle to define an identity in a continent that he saw as dominated by the informal imperial power of the US. Focismo crystallised in the years after the Cuban Revolution in 1959 into an ideological concept supportive of the Castro regime’s claims to provide a distinctive new model of Third World revolution in opposition to those of the Soviet Union and China. Focismo has survived in the contemporary era as an approach that partly describes some modern terrorist and Jihadist movements in the Middle East.

Guerrilla warfare, flagship project: The spatial politics of Chinese rock in Shenzhen’s post-political making of a musical city

Chinese rock, premised on an identity of dissenters, has always been underground symbolically and literally, in a pattern of spatial fluidity in the city. The introduction of live house might offer a solid material base for political subjectivation of the community. This spatial action of subjectivation in forms of “guerrilla warfare”, encounters the growing passion for cultural city making by Municipal Governments. Through the study on transformation of rock space in Shenzhen, we aim to reflect on scholarship on post-political forms of urban governance in China. By probing into the antagonistic actions of the police and the political, we call for attention to territorial strategies used by both sides to consolidate the existing order and to assert a new order respectively. The double side of partition revealed by Rancirian conception of politics of aesthetics allows the governing side to pick and co-opt particular producers and live houses while collapse and/or policing others to re-consolidate spatial orders. Guided by expert-formed consensus, citizen entitlement and citizen participation programmes convert cities to be propaganda sites where state-sanctioned aesthetics is delivered to and experienced by subject-citizens.