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Geographic Factors of Southeast Asian Insurgencies

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Geographic Factors of Southeast Asian Insurgencies MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA FAKULTA SOCIÁLNÍCH STUDIÍ KATEDRA POLITOLOGIE Geographic Factors of Southeast Asian Insurgencies Magisterská diplomová práce Bc. Tomáš Lalkovič Vedoucí práce: prof. JUDr. PhDr. Miroslav Mareš, Ph.D. UČO: 414751 Obor: Bezpečnostní a strategická studia Imatrikulační ročník: 2016 Brno, 2018 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 Research Methodology ............................................................................................................... 6 State of the Art ........................................................................................................................... 7 Geography .................................................................................................................................. 8 Sun-Tzu: The Art of War ....................................................................................................... 9 Carl von Clausewitz: On War .............................................................................................. 10 Terrain .................................................................................................................................. 11 Vo Nguyen Giap and the Vietnam War ............................................................................... 13 Configuration ....................................................................................................................... 16 Mao Zedong, Guerrilla Warfare, and Population ................................................................. 18 Population ............................................................................................................................. 23 Conceptualizing Geography: Conclusion ............................................................................. 24 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ............................................................................................ 26 History and Context ............................................................................................................. 26 Geography of Sri Lanka ....................................................................................................... 29 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 40 Moro Islamic Liberation Front ................................................................................................. 42 History and Context ............................................................................................................. 42 Geography of the Philippines ............................................................................................... 45 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 58 References ................................................................................................................................ 62 Number of characters: 144,862 1 Prohlášení o autorství práce Prohlašuji, že jsem magisterskou práci na téma Geographic Factors of Southeast Asian Insurgencies vypracoval samostatně a použil jen zdroje uvedené v seznamu literatury. V Brně, 30. 5. 2018 …………………………………… 2 Annotation The presented study explains the connection between geography and the strategy of insurgents. To do so, it builds up a theoretical framework of geographic factors that influence insurgent strategies and then applies the created framework in the case studies of Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Key words: strategy, insurgency, geography, terrain, population, Sri Lanka, Philippines Anotace Předkládaná práce vysvětluje spojení mezi geografií konfliktu a strategií povstaleckých skupin. Za tím účelem práce nejprve vytvoří teoretickou strukturu geografických faktorů, které mají vplyv na povstalecké strategie, a následně ji aplikuje v případových studiích Srí Lanky a Filipín. Klíčová slova: strategie, povstání, geografie, terén, populace, Srí Lanka, Filipíny 3 Introduction The majority of armed conflicts in today's world have the characteristics of rebellions, insurgencies against a state authority, and civil wars. Their common features are a low level of technological and tactical sophistication, ideological motives, and a destabilizing effect on the countries they take place in. Moreover, their effects are still more often being felt by the countries outside of the area of insurgency, in the form of deterioration of international relations and refugee waves. The understanding of insurgent conflicts underwent a rapid turnaround in the three decades since the end of the Cold War. Looking at the Cold War insurgencies, it can be stated quite confidently that they were mostly understood as foreign policy tools of the superpowers, used either to spread the Marxist ideology and the influence of the Soviet Union, to combat this spread by the United States, or to undermine each other's rival using proxy actors. The Cold War eventually ended, but the insurgencies did not disappear. Consequently, in the last decade of 20th century the understanding of insurgencies shifted more to structural, cultural, or socio-economic factors at the expense of the military-strategic ones. One of such factors is geography, which this paper will understand simply as the physical features of the earth and, to a certain extent, its atmosphere, including human activity as it affects and is affected by these. When it comes to the study of war and armed conflicts in general, the considerations of geography have traditionally been at the forefront position. If we accept that the insurgent conflicts of today’s world are just another type of war, it makes sense to analyze them from the point of view of geography. This study will therefore argue, that geographic conditions of a country will determine the strategy that the insurgent group will adopt to pursue its goals. This will be done in two parts. The first half of the paper will deal with the concept of geography from the theoretical standpoint. It will analyze previous works of chosen prominent thinkers, historians, and both insurgent and counterinsurgent commanders. From these works the author will build up a framework of military geography in insurgent conflicts, meaning a specific set of geographic factors that have demonstrable and significant influence on the strategy of insurgents. The second part of the work will prove the applicability of this framework in practice. The framework will be used to analyze chosen insurgent groups from recent history, compare the influence of geography on the strategy of each, and in this manner generalize conclusions about the role of geography in the strategy of insurgents. 4 In the end, this work will bring about a better understanding of insurgent conflicts, specifically of the geographic conditions in which they take place. This will in turn make it possible for policy makers, military commanders and academics to discern which countries are vulnerable to eruptions of insurgencies, in what geographic conditions the insurgencies thrive and therefore how to effectively prevent them or stop them once they are manifested. As a final note, there is a clear distinction between violent and non-violent, or better to say military and political strategies. Violence is an inherent element of insurgencies and this study will therefore deal predominantly with military strategies of the insurgent groups. The impact of geography on military strategy is also much clearer than on political. However, the two types of strategies are not exclusive to each other. Therefore, in cases where it is conductive to the objectives of this study, political strategies will be also given attention. 5 Research Methodology The main research question of this paper can be stated as: What influence does geography have on insurgent strategy? Naturally, such a broad question cannot be easily answered and therefore has to be divided into specific sub-questions, which, in turn, will be answered in the individual chapters of the paper. Firstly, to understand the influence of geography in any situation the concept itself must be properly explored and defined. The factors of geography that have observable influence on the matters of military strategy must be described in detail. Therefore, the first sub-question can be stated in a following manner: Which factors of geography have an influence on the strategy of insurgents? The answer to this question will be sought in the literature of chosen military thinkers, theorists, and practitioners, either of universal esteem or with specific focus on the matters of geography and insurgent conflicts. In the end, a set of specific geographic factors will be defined and divided into clear categories. Once these factors are clearly defined, a follow-up question can be explored: How do the chosen geographic factors influence insurgent strategies? However, the question is still extremely broad, considering that insurgencies have been fought on every inhabited continent and in every age of the human history. For this reason, the author can only analyze the influence of geography in specific examples. The chosen insurgent groups to be analysed are the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from the Philippines. The conclusion of the paper will shortly summarize and compare the two cases and will provide
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