Waging Insurgent Warfare

An analysis of insurgent warfare, looking at factors that contribute to insurgency.

A systematic, comprehensive and straightforward format for analyzing and comparing insurgencies.

The Ethics of Insurgency explains how guerrillas who pursue national self-determination may justly utilize many unlawful practices of war.

Modern Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies explores how unconventional warfare tactics have opposed past and present governments all over the world, from eighteenth-century guerrilla warfare to the urban terrorism of today. Insurgency remains one of the most prevalent forms of conflict and presents a crucial challenge to the international communi

A fascinating look at the insurgencies and counterinsurgencies throughout history with a concentration on the 20th and 21st centuries. This encyclopedia examines insurgencies—and the counterinsurgency efforts they prompt—through history, addressing military actions and the techniques and technologies employed in each conflict, significant insurgency leaders, and the leading theorists, with emphasis on the "small wars" of the 20th century and most recent decades. The clear, concise entries provide a breadth of coverage that ranges from the Maccabean Revolt in 168–143 BCE and the Peasants' Revolt in Germany in the 1500s to the American Revolutionary War and the ongoing insurgency in Syria. Readers will gain a solid understanding of how insurgency warfare and counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy has played a key role in the U.S. conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 21st century, and grasp how this important military strategy has evolved during modern times.

Much depends upon the social and economic circumstances of each particular society and the book cogently argues that guerrilla insurgency is likely to remain a major theme in global politics well into the next century.

Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in the Nineteenth Century examines insurgency and counterinsurgency across the globe in the nineteenth century. The volume includes chapters from distinguished and rising historians from Europe, North and South America and covers irregular wars in Spain, Ireland, France, Latin America, China, USA, Africa, Central Asia and Burma. The authors explore links between insurgencies and nationalism, including learning curves and emulation in counterinsurgency. With a special emphasis on non-Western warfare, this volume includes case studies such as the Katanga and White Lotus rebellions largely unknown to Western readers. The military history of the nineteenth century thus reveals much more than the symmetrical warfare of Napoleon, Grant and Moltke. This volume shows the commonalities of responses more than their differences and refracts these through themes which crop up repeatedly in different times and places. These themes include common problems and solutions: the challenge of commanding local intelligence networks; public opinion; millenarianism, magic and religion; technology; ‘hearts and minds’; the legal framework of state violence; racial stereotypes and patterns of forgetting and remembering guerrilla conflicts. The first recent study to examine Western and non-Western warfare in equal measure, stressing the prevalence of commonalities between guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency across the globe, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in the Nineteenth Century will be of great interest to scholars of military and strategic studies, as well as modern military history. It was originally published as a special issue of Small Wars & Insurgencies.

"This study focuses on the current global war on terrorism as a conflict against insurgents who attack U.S. power through asymmetric means. Of late, these individuals have selected as a primary target the military and civilian convoy operations in Iraq and, to some extent, Afghanistan. By examining past examples of the use of air power in counterinsurgent warfare, this study sheds light on the United States' current failings in both equipment and doctrine as it wages this type of war. The French used low-technology aircraft -- World War II-vintage A-1 and T-6 fighters -- in Algeria to attack insurgent forces and defend ground troops. Well adapted to the environment as well as effectively deployed and employed, these aircraft helped contain and defeat the insurgents. In Vietnam, the United States employed A-1s and T-28s -- aircraft with a proven track record in this type of war and ideally suited to training the South Vietnamese air force. The United States should rethink its inventory of aircraft devoted to counterinsurgent war by considering possible replacements for the A-1. It should also reevaluate the manner of employing these assets by locating them with the ground forces they support. The technology that would meet the needs of future limited conflicts would have the following characteristics: (1) off-the-shelf technology, (2) long-range and loiter capability, (3) short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability, (4) ability to operate from austere airfields, (5) diverse weapons-carrying capability, (6) good navigation and fire-control systems, (7) good pilot visibility, (8) speed and maneuverability at low-to-medium altitudes, and (9) the ability to absorb ground fire with a high degree of survivability."--Abstract.