Insurgency Flashcards
Insurgent approaches
a. Conspiratorial
b. Military-focused
c. Urban
d. Protracted popular war
e. Identity-focused
f. Composite and coalition
Urban Appch aims to accomplish the foll:
- a. Sow disorder
b. Incite sectarian violence
c. Weaken the government
d. Intimidate the population
e. Kill government and opposition leaders
f. Fix and intimidate police and military forces, limiting their ability to respond to attacks
g. Create government repression
Characteristics of Insurgency
a. Pol-Psy Dimension
b. Ldrshp & Int
c. Org, Comm & Recruitment
d. Equipment & Logistics
e. Trg
f. Disp & Morale
g. Tactics & Combat
Pol-Psy Dimension
a. These aspects of insurgency are predominant & of critical imp.
b. The env relevant to insurgency conflict is dominated less by terrain
& physical factors & more by human beings & psy factors.
c. Victory & defeat are measured, less in terms of tangibles (e.g. Enemy
killed, units destroyed, area of ground occupied and so on) than intangibles such as shifts in popular support, altered perceptions & altered behavior on the part of the affected segments of the popn.
d. Mil success by the insurgent will have profound pol & psy consequences. Therefore, mil activities are planned with an eye to their potential pol psy impact.
e. The civil popn plays a more imp role in insurgent conflict than in regular warfare. Instead of being distinct from the battlefield, the civil population is the battlefield. Combatants are not restricted to those in uniform only.
Ldrshp & Int Dimension
a. Ldrshp is likely to be personalized & non- bureaucratic.
b. The gulf b/w the officers & the enlisted men is likely to be less
prominent in irregular forces.
c. Fewer of the leaders’ll be professional mil men
d. The pol & mil functions of leadership’ll be intermixed at all
levels.
e. The int apparatus’ll normally be less professional than that of the CI & is likely to be technically less sophisticated than the CI, although not necessarily less effective.
f. The leaders may be influenced by various ideology/ism i.e. Marxism, Leninism Maoism etc they practice, whereas the majority of cadres are not aware about it; most of them may be following the leaders by some other incentives.
Org, Comm & recruitment
a. Org structure’ll be less elaborate.
b. Indl unit & field cdrs are likely to have more autonomy.
c. Comm sys possessed by the irregular forces is likely to be less sophisticated technically than that possessed by the regular forces facing them.
d. Recruitment is mainly based on intimidation and coercion.
Eqpt & Logs
a. Eqpt of the insurgents will normally be less sophisticated than that of CI.
b. Eqpt’ll tend to be lighter than that of regular forces.
c. Eqpt’ll normally be scarce; ammn is invariably in short supply.
d. Insurgent movements have often sources of supply outside the country.
Trg
a. Pre- combat training is likely to be short by conventional standards.
b. Insurgent trg is likely to place greater emphasis upon pol indoctrination than on conventional mil trg.
Disp & Morale
a. Insurgents place less emphasis on the formalities of military courtesy than what is expected of conventional forces.
b. Disp depends more on morale, devotion to a cause & camaraderie
than on formal obligations.
c. Insurgents’ enforcement of disp is likely to be characterized by
informality, flexibility, speed and harshness.
Tactics & Cbt
a. An insurgent’ll place a greater emphasis on the use of stealth, concealment & surprise than what is normal amongst regular forces.
b. Insurgent’ll try to break contact with his enemy rather than maintain it.
c. Greater emphasis’ll be placed on tactical mobility (which, however, does not necessary mean mechanization).
Viciousness of Insurgency
a. Legality + Construction + Result = Govt
b. Illegality + Destruction + Promises = Insurgents
Pre-requisites of Successful Insurgency
a. Cause.
b. Weakness of the counter insurgency.
c. Popular support.
d. Leadership and Organization.
e. Favorable geographic conditions, and
f. Outside support.
Weakness of Pol Regime
a. Social, Eco & Pol problem
b. Weak Ldrshp
c. CI knowledge of CI Warfare
d. Machinery for the ctrl of popn
e. Probs of Bdr Areas
Machinery for the ctrl of popn
a. Pol structure
b. Adm bureaucracy
c. Police/Armed police
d. The Armed Forces
Outside Sp forms:
a. Moral
b. Pol
c. Tech
d. Fin
e. Mil
