Department of Military History Rekkedal et al. Rekkedal The various forms of irregular war today, such as insurgency, counterinsurgency and guerrilla war, Winds of Change are normally characterised by the distinctive features of a geographical area. The so-called wars of national liberation between 1945 and the late On Irregular Warfare 1970s were disproportionately associated with terms like insurgency, guerrilla war and (internal) Nils Marius Rekkedal et al. terrorism. Use of such methods signals revolutionary Publication series 2 | N:o 18 intentions, but the number of local and regional conflict is still relatively high today, almost 40 years after the end of the so-called ‘Colonial period’. In this book, we provide some explanations for the ongoing conflicts. The book also deals, to a lesser extent, with causes that are of importance in many ongoing conflicts – such as ethnicity, religious beliefs, ideology and fighting for control over areas and resources. The book also contains historical examples and presents some of the common thoughts and theories concerning different forms of irregular warfare, insurgencies and terrorism. Included are also a number of presentations of today’s definitions of military terms for the different forms of conflict and the book offer some information on the international military-theoretical debate about military terms. Publication series 2 | N:o 18 ISBN 978 - 951 - 25 - 2271 - 2 Department of Military History ISSN 1456 - 4874 P.O. BOX 7, 00861 Helsinki Suomi – Finland WINDS OF CHANGE ON IRREGULAR WARFARE NILS MARIUS REKKEDAL ET AL. Rekkedal.indd 1 23.5.2012 9:50:13 National Defence University of Finland, Department of Military History 2012 Publication series 2 N:o 18 Cover: A Finnish patrol in Afghanistan. Photo Finnish Defence Forces. © Writers and National Defence University of Finland 2012 ISBN 978–951–25–2271–2 ISSN 1456–4874 Juvenes Print, Tampere 2012 Rekkedal.indd 2 23.5.2012 9:50:13 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 8 Nils Marius Rekkedal 1.1. Explaining insurgency 8 1.2. The purpose of this book 17 1.3. A short presentation of some important books and other sources 25 2 CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMS CONNECTED TO IRREGULAR WARFARE 47 Nils Marius Rekkedal 2.1. About this chapter 47 2.2. Insurgent warfare is common 47 2.3. The term irregular warfare 91 2.4. May we learn something from earlier insurgencies? 97 2.5. ‘Methods of insurgency’ – a brief overview 100 3 ASYMMETRIC WARFARE, COMPOUND AND HYBRID WARFARE 131 Kari-Petri Huovinen, Nils Marius Rekkedal 3.1. Introduction 131 3.2. Has war (really) changed? 134 3.3. Asymmetric warfare 140 3.4. Compound warfare, hybrid warfare and full spectrum operations 171 3.5. Case study 1: the Vietnam War 176 3.6. Case study 2: Second Lebanon War 189 3.7. Full spectrum operations 200 3.8. Analysis of compound warfare, hybrid warfare and full spectrum operations 206 4 DIFFERENT THEORIES AND PRACTICES CONNECTED WITH COUNTERINSURGENCY 214 Nils Marius Rekkedal 4.1. Introduction – concepts for countering insurgencies 214 4.2. The development of COIN 231 4.3. A French view on counterinsurgency 234 3 Rekkedal.indd 3 23.5.2012 9:50:13 4.4. American COIN development 253 4.5. Studies of two wars with different results 267 4.6. Counterinsurgency – what is important? 281 4.7. Learning from the past for use in contemporary thinking 289 4.8. Summing up 311 5 STABILITY OPERATIONS 329 Anders Kjølberg 5.1. Introduction 329 5.2. What are stability operations? 331 5.3. Strategy and planning 339 5.4. Framework 344 5.5. Implementation – what has an impact? 346 5.6. Experiences 350 5.7. Conclusion 356 6 WHAT IS TERRORISM? 360 Brynjar Lia 6.1. Definition 360 6.2. Terrorism in recent times: a brief summary 362 6.3. What is al-Qaeda? 366 7 CONCLUSION 375 Nils Marius Rekkedal 7.1. Introduction 375 7.2. The debate about irregular warfare and other terms used today 377 7.3. The ‘Renaissance for counterinsurgency’ 383 7.4. Towards the end of ‘The Second COIN Era’? 393 APPENDIX: SWEDISH VIEW ON IRREGULAR WARFARE 402 Michael Gustafson 4 Rekkedal.indd 4 23.5.2012 9:50:13 FOREWORD This book consists of studies of the different forms of so-calledirregular war, based on unclassified sources. The various forms of irregular war today, such as insurgency, counterinsurgency and guerrilla war, are normally characterised by the distinctive features of a geographi- cal area. The so-called wars of national liberation between 1945 and the late 1970s were disproportionately associated with terms like insurgency, guerrilla war and (in- ternal) terrorism. Use of such methods signals revolutionary intentions, but also says something about the revolutionaries’ military weakness. Use of insurgency, guerrilla war and terrorism may be looked upon as typical of the many Communist-led revo- lutionary movements during this period, but the use of such methods on their own rarely produced decisive results, and these methods were chosen only by groupings that were too weak to reach their revolutionary aims by conventional means. The term revolutionary war is hardly in use today, as it has been replaced by terms that more aptly describe contemporary conflicts/wars. In this book, we provide some explanations for the ongoing conflicts. The book also deals, to a lesser extent, with causes that are of importance in many ongoing conflicts – such as ethnicity, religious beliefs, ideology and control over areas and re- sources. The book also contains historical examples and presents some of the common thoughts and theories concerning different forms of irregular warfare, insurgencies and terrorism. Included are also a number of presentations of today’s definitions of military terms for the different forms of warfare, and the book offers some informa- tion on the international military-theoretical debate about military terms. Fighting the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan has dominated the focus of the American military after 2003. The war in Afghanistan has also been very important for the military development of the NATO countries after 2002. Military thinking about insurgency and counterinsurgency has undergone a ‘renaissance’ after a ‘long dip’ following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The development between 2004 and 2009 may be looked upon as a ‘New Counterinsurgency Era’, to paraphrase Douglas S. Blaufarb’s book about the Vietnam War, The Counterinsurgency Era (1977). Blaufarb wrote: The fundamental lesson to draw from our misadventures of the counterin- surgency era is (…) the lesson of the limits of American power. It is also of 5 Rekkedal.indd 5 23.5.2012 9:50:14 importance that we should understand in what way our power (…) can be challenged by a few thousand ragged jungle fighters armed with a dedicated leadership, a tested theory, and great patience (…)1 Perhaps in a few years’ time we can draw more or less the same conclusions regard- ing the U.S.-led operations in Iraq and the NATO (ISAF)/U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan?2 One of the goals of this book is to seek to demonstrate that the many insurgencies and acts of terrorism from 1945 to the present day do not have just one cause, but are due to a combination of several local or regional causes. Ideology, ethnicity and religion have all acted as important catalysts for the many (mostly local) ‘small wars’ that have taken place during this period. The leaders of a successful insurgency will often analyse and exploit local displeasure with, for example, economic conditions, the country’s political leadership or other ethnic groups in the actual area. Based on the insurgent leadership’s strategy, people may be mobilised without necessarily un- derstanding all the consequences of taking part in an insurgency. The following is a short overview of the themes dealt with in the individual chapters: Foreword 1. Introduction (incl. evaluation of sources) 2. Irregular warfare – its different forms 3. Asymmetric warfare, compound warfare and hybrid warfare 4. Counterinsurgency, COIN 5. Stabilisation operations 6. Terrorism 7. Conclusion Appendix: A Swedish view on irregular warfare. Selected Bibliography and Index. The longest section of this book is devoted to counterinsurgency (see Chapter 4), as this is a very complicated form of warfare; that said, this text is strongly supported by descriptions of irregular warfare, insurgency and terrorism. As the chapters were writ- ten by different authors, it has been difficult to avoid the appearance of certain themes in more than one chapter. As editor, I have nevertheless decided to accept this, and 1 Douglas S. Blaufarb, Foreword by William P. Bundy, The Counterinsurgency Era. U.S. Doctrine and Performance 1950 to the Present (New York: The Free Press, 1977), pp. 310–311. 2 ISAF is the International Security Assistance Force. Since NATO took command of ISAF in 2003, the Alliance has gradu- ally expanded the reach of its mission. It was originally limited to Kabul, but by 2010 it covered all of Afghanistan’s ter- ritory. The number of ISAF soldiers grew from the initial 5,000 to, in December 2010, around 130,400 troops from 48 countries, including all 28 NATO member nations. 6 Rekkedal.indd 6 23.5.2012 9:50:14 have included some cross-references between the chapters in order to indicate where a theme may also appear in another chapter. This book has been written primarily for officers. The emphasis is on describing the development of trends, concepts and modern terms. Historical and military ex- periences taken from the literature will, together with the authors’ points of view and analysis, form the basis for the assessment. This book was written during my research contract with Maanpuolustuskorkeakoulu [in English, the Finnish National Defence University (FNDU), Helsinki], and I have acted as editor of all chapters of the book.