Insurgency War Research Articles

Intimacy and the gendering of war healthcare: women’s experiences of insurgency war in Nepal (1996–2006)

ABSTRACT This article explores intimacy and gendered practices in insurgent warfare, with special reference to the conflict in Nepal between 1996 and 2006. Drawing on fieldwork, we argue that women’s experiences of and during the insurgency highlight how they engaged with bodily concerns and care, reproductive, and healing practices while serving revolutionary causes. By drawing attention to these particular issues, the article contends that most of the existing literature on conflict fails to account for the gendered nuances and micro-politics of care in violent contexts. It shows how healthcare provisions have been restricted to informal and private spaces due to attacks against healthcare and illustrates the long-term impacts of being unable to access public healthcare due to insecurity.

Hybrid War: Theory and Ethics

Terrorist attacks against the United States and some European states, and the war against terrorism characterised the end of the 20th century from the perspective of international relations. In harmony with this, military theoretical and ethical research aimed at terrorism, insurgency war in general and counterterrorism in this period. Some years later, however, at the beginning of the 21st century, some further questions joined these problems, like the theoretical and ethical issues of hybrid war. This essay deals with the theoretical and philosophical features of hybrid war in order to develop an ethical theory for it.

The Legal Complexities of Terrorism as an International Crime Following the Recruitment and Enlistment of Child Soldiers in the Cabo Delgado, Mozambique Insurgency War

The conscription of children in military conflicts within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region was more peculiar to the Democratic Republic of Congo after the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars subsided into peace during the late 1990s. The resurgence of child soldiers in Mozambique under a new Islamic-inspired terrorist phenomenon adds a terrifying dimension that brings legal complexities around defining terrorism and resituating it separately as a crime within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The spectre of terrorism—as the current prime inducement of children into hostilities in Mozambique—has regional, political, economic and security implications, given its magnitude and recurring nature. This research is qualitative in form and its objective is broadening the understanding of terrorism, addressing the recurring recruitment of children into armed conflicts within the SADC region, and making a case for the inclusion of terrorism in the Rome Statute. This is important for the SADC, which had sloughed off the heinous side of civil wars. Research demonstrates that systemic violation of child rights takes an enormous toll on societies, given its extensive physical and psychological harm, and that often children in war-torn societies make up half the population. The findings are that the inclusion of terrorism within the scope of the ICC broadens international accountability mechanisms and acts as a deterrent for the future enlistment of children into armed conflicts.

OLD METHODS IN THE NEW FRAMEWORK”. STRATEGY OF GREY ZONES IN HYBRID WARFARE

The concept of waging conflict in Grey Zones was adopted in the US community of international security analysts several years ago. It refers to the use of primarily non-militaryinstruments to create spaces of deep conflict at multiple social, political, cultural, religious and economic levels. These conflicts take place below the threshold of war. One of the first concepts that we can consider as the genesis of this type of strategy is the concept of rebel wars created in the 1960s, by the Russian strategist, Colonel Yevgeny Messner. This new type of war was to be characterised by the predominance of civilian combat, the key importance of psychological impact and the decisive importance of the use of troops and special services. Messner also pointed to the growing role of terror in the conduct of military operations. Another important feature of the new concept was the “denationalisation of war”. Fighting social groups, military and paramilitary sub-units were to be deprived of recognition marks.Keywords: insurgency wars, asymmetric conflicts, hybrid wars, Yevgeny Messner, grey zones.

Pauses, Cuts, and Static Interference

The mergers and separations that shaped the decolonizing third world also made media history. Singapore’s separation from Malaysia on August 9, 1965, after two tumultuous years of union was no exception. Radio and television, which broadcasted the seminal moments, embodied the mergers and separations of media forms—this is a fact overlooked in both national histories and regional media scholarship. Reconfigured with the complex, shifting intersections of radio and television, the otherwise familiar account of merger and separation in the “Singapore Story” emerges anew with static noises, pauses, iterations, and interruptions. The technical effects of cuts and jumps in early radio and television editing undergird and thereby challenge the politics of representation in studies of decolonization. At the same time, technological transfer and adaptation in the former British colonies open the provincial confines of media theory to a more global, materialist trajectory. This article connects the televised broadcast of Singapore’s independence in 1965 to early enthusiasm for radio’s disembodied voice during the colonial, interwar period. The discussion then examines how Amir Muhammad’s 2007 independent documentary Village People Radio Show (Apa khabar orang kampung) recovers radio’s forgotten role in the Second Malayan Emergency, also known as the Communist Insurgency War (1967–89).

Analisis Fourth-Generation War Dalam Perang Insurgensi: Studi Kasus Pemberontakan Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Zapatista (Ezln) Di Meksiko

Like the story of asymmetric fight between David and Goliath, Insurgency war is also the story of an asymmetrical warfare in which highly advanced military parties (usually the State Governments) are often struggling and even failing against small group of insurgents. By taking the case of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) uprising, this paper aims to analyze why this armed rebel with poorly military equipments is able to relatively succeded in striving for its political agenda. In doing so, this paper used the concept of Fourth Generation War that emphasizes the importance of using all available networks to attacks the minds of enemy decision makers to destroy their political will. The author show that the main factor that determined EZLN’s trump is its ability to use three important networks, namely; a) Indian communities, b) national and international civil society and, c) internet and independent media networks as means in disseminating their grievances and alternatives. Keywords: insurgency, asymmetry warfare, fourth generation war, EZLN, networks

Intelligence in a modern insurgency: the case of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal

ABSTRACTOutside some well-known movements like Al Qaeda, there is little understanding of how insurgent movements in the Global South gather, process and manage intelligence. This paper is based on fieldwork in Nepal with former members of the Maoist Army. The Maoists fought a secretive insurgency war for ten years, signing a peace agreement in 2006. Fieldwork involved former combatants, intelligence officers and Maoist cadres and analyses the intelligence methodology of the Maoist insurgency, placing this in to the context of Nepal Government operations. The Maoists benefited from poor opponents but they did establish an effective system of intelligence into operations.

Los realistas: historiografía, semántica y milicia

El presente artículo analiza, por una parte, la construcción historiográfica de los realistas entendidos como los opositores a los movimientos independentistas hispanoamericanos, en general, y novohispanos, en particular y, por otra parte, en consonancia con el estudio de los lenguajes políticos, los usos del término realista en el ámbito de la monarquía española con particular énfasis en los años de la crisis política y en el contexto del conflicto independentista de la Nueva España. Por último, la investigación da cuenta del desarrollo del fenómeno miliciano novohispano en tiempos de la guerra insurgente para destacar las implicaciones de los distintos cuerpos a partir de sus denominaciones.

‘Gaafa dhaabaa - the period of stop’: Narrating impacts of shifta insurgency on pastoral economy in northern Kenya, c. 1963 to 2007

In northern Kenya, there have been limited discussions on the impacts of the 1960 to 1968 insurgency wars and subsequent banditry on the long-term impacts of the pastoral economy. This is despite the societies’ vivid memories of the effects of these wars, from which research would gain a long-term outlook about consequences on rural economies. We present an understanding of the long-term impact of the shifta (term used at that period by the Kenyan Government) for the secessionist war fought by the Somali insurgents with the armed forces of Kenya between 1963 and 1968. We evaluate the impact of the shifta insurgency, the army's counter-insurgency and the subsequent insecurity on the recovery of the pastoral economy between 1984 and 2007. We interviewed members of three communities in Isiolo District in Kenya affected by the shifta war. The research shows that the livestock herds of the communities have not achieved the levels of recovery of the pre-shifta war forty-four years after that conflict ended. Persistent banditry and recurrent droughts are blamed by the pastoralists for the lack of recovery of the pastoral herds of the three communities. The article concludes that armed conflicts, coupled with risks of droughts, have a long-term impact on the pastoral economy.

Schlock and Blah: Counter-insurgency Realities in a Rapid Dominance Era

This article examines the concept of ‘shock and awe’ in US military thought. It argues that the term derives from two main sources in defense thinking: rapidity in operations and overwhelming military superiority and is reflected in the concept of ‘full spectrum dominance’. However, the concept is not well attuned to fighting net-based counter insurgency war in a terrain such as Iraq which depends upon both intelligence gathering and adaptive military organizations. The article concludes that US military thinking should be more attuned to the effects of military force especially on political processes and the capacity of insurgents to mobilize popular support.

Strong powers in small wars: The unnoticed foundations of success

This essay discusses how strong military powers successfully conduct counter‐insurgency campaigns. In particular, it notes the pivotal role savagery plays in such encounters, and the social and institutional conditions that facilitate the resort to extreme levels of brutality. Finally, the essay demonstrates how states (including infant democracies) employ various compartmentalisation techniques in order to win insurgency wars, once the key conditions that facilitate the resort to brutality start to disappear.

Biological Mass Spectrometry. Basic Information on Nerve Gas and the Use of Sarin by Aum Shinrikyo. Plenary Lecture at the Biological Mass Spectrometry Conference Seto, Aichi, Japan July 3-6, 1995.

Nerve gas is a major chemical agent stockpiled as a chemical arsenal. Nerve gas was used in actual combat in the Iran-Iraq war and also in the insurgent war against Kurd minorities in Iraq. Recently, a nerve gas, sarin, was used massively against a defenseless public in Matsumoto and in Tokyo, causing a large number of deaths and injuries. This marked the first use of chemical weapons in a noncombat situation by a terrorist group. Information on nerve gas is relatively scarce; it is not easily accessible to most people. A systematic summarized article like the one here should help those who are interested in an overview of scientific information on nerve gas.In this review article, an overall view of poisonous gas is first made. Then different aspects of nerve gas are discussed. Toxicology, treatment, detection, decontamination and control of precursors are also reviewed.

Military Politics and Counter-Insurgency in Peru

Eleven years after the start of an insurgent war, Peru's military appears no closer to defeating the two insurgencies that have plagued the country since 1980. The promise of greater political stability and a reduced role for the military in politics, which the the return to civilian rule held out, have largely been dashed. The war has meant a new active role for the military in politics which, under emergency decrees, directly rules over half of the country and maintains an influential voice in national policymaking. Under the previous two elected governments and the current Fujimori administration, the military institution has largely designed and implemented counter-insurgency strategy, leaving civilian policymakers aside in the decision-making process. What is more important, military officials have remained largely unaccountable for their decisions due to the lack of any civilian oversight capacity or alternative strategies. More than a decade after the start of the war, civilians have yet to devise methods that can increase military accountability.

The Just Revolution

Those who do Christian ethics are obliged in the seventies to renew their search for an understanding of the conditions that would justify revolutionary resorts to violence (jus ad belum), of the moral limits upon the conduct of insurgency war and, yes, of the permissible limits of counterinsurgency (jus in bello).But, you may object, that is to ignore a chief cause of American involvement in the Vietnam war: President Kennedy was tempted to begin the escalation of U.S. involvement because he had an available “weapons system“ (the Green Berets) and because he trusted a doctrine of counterinsurgency. What's more, you further object, regardless of what we may think about the morality of insurgency or counterinsurgency as such, a chief lesson to be drawn from Vietnam is that, when an industrial power like the United States gets involved in counterinsurgency in a traditional and preindustrial society, disproportionate violence is bound to be done.

Malaya: The Communist Insurgent War, 1948–60

Malaya: The Communist Insurgent War, 1948–60

Reviews of Books

Abstract The Military Intellectuals in Britain, 1918–1939. By Robin Higham. (Rutgers University Press.) $7.50. The New Economics of National Defense. By John J. Clark. (Random House, New York.) $4.95. The Rand Corporation: Case Study of a Nonprofit Advisory Corporation. By Bruce L. R. Smith. (Harvard University Press. London: Oxford University Press.) 64s. Soviet Military Policy: A Historical Analysis. By Raymond L. Garthoff. (Faber & Faber.) 42s. Voices Prophesying War, 1763–1984. By I. F. Clarke. (Oxford University Press.) 42s. A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in all Countries and in All Times. By George Cameron Stone. (Jack Brussel.) $19.95. Military Geography. By Louis C. Peltier and G. Etzel Pearcy. (Van Nostrand.) 16s. Malaya: The Communist Insurgent War, 1948–1960. By Edgar O'Ballance. (Faber & Faber.) 30s. Viet-Nam Witness 1953–1966. By Bernard B. Fall. (Pall Mall Press.) 50s. Lost Soldiers: The French Army and Empire in Crises, 1947–1962. By George Armstrong Kelly. (The M.I.T. Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.) $10.00 Douglas Haig As I Knew Him. By G. S. Duncan. (Allen & Unwin.) 25s. Ludendorff—Soldier: Dictator: Revolutionary. By D. J. Goodspeed. (Hart-Davis.) 55s. Hirohito: Emperor of Japan. By Leonard Mosley. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson.) 42s. Russian Hussar. By Vladimir S. Littauer. (J. A. Allen.) 30s. Wearing Spurs. By John Reith. (Hutchinson.) 30s. A Don at War. By Sir David Hunt, K.C.M.G., O.B.E. (Kimber.) 50s. World War 1939–45: A Short History. By Brigadier Peter Young, D.S.O., M.C. (Arthur Barker.) 45s. The Struggle for Crete: A Story of Lost Opportunity, 20 May—1 June 1941. By I. McD. G. Stewart. (Oxford University Press.) 70s. U.S. Army in World War II. European Theater of Operations. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. By Hugh M. Cole. (Office of the Chief of Military History, United States Army.) $7.50. Navy Board Contracts 1660–1832. By Bernard Pool, C.B., C.B.E. (Longmans.) 50s. Oar Maces of Admiralty. (Her Majesty's Stationery Office.) 8s. 6d. The Smoke Screen of Jutland. By Commander John Irving, R.N., Retd. (Kimber.) 50s. The Sea our Shield. By Captain W. R. Fell, C.M.G., C.B.E., D.S.C., R.N. (Cassell.) 36s. One Minute of Time: The “Melbourne-Voyager” Collision. By Vice-Admiral Harold Hickling, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O. (A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington, New Zealand.) 25s. An Army for the Sixties: A Study in National Policy, Contract and Obligation. By Anthony Verrier. (Secker & Warburg.) 42s. Mafeking: A Victorian Legend. By Brian Gardner. (Cassell.) 30s. Salute the Soldier: An Anthology of Quotations, Poems and Prose. Edited by Captain Eric Wheler Bush, D.S.O., D.S.C., Royal Navy. (Allen & Unwin.) 52s. 6d. A History of the Royal School for Daughters of Officers of the Army 1864–1965. By Honor Osborne and Peggy Manisty. (Hodder & Stoughton.) 30s. Boeing Aircraft since 1916. By Peter M. Bowers. (Putnam.) 63s. British Flying-Boats and Amphibians 1909–1952. By G. R. Duval. (Putnam.) 50s.