ABSTRACT

Throughout the 1950s Britain faced unprecedented challenges to its imperial rule. Civil disobedience, insurgency and terrorism gripped its colonies as the flames of nationalism and anti-colonialism burned brightly across the world. In two of Britain’s most important Cold War strategic outposts, Northern Ireland and Cyprus, insurgents belonging to the IRA and EOKA launched armed campaigns to undermine British rule. This article examines the insurgencies on both islands in the period 1955–59, comparing the respective approaches taken by the IRA and EOKA to guerrilla warfare. Drawing on original English and Greek language sources, as well as other empirical evidence, the article argues that the IRA and EOKA interpreted their struggles in complementary ways as part of a broader national liberation struggle, which, above all, suggests a shared understanding of British imperialism. Admittedly, beyond a mutually perceived ‘brotherly bond’, IRA leaders did not apply specific military lessons they had learned from members of EOKA while in English prisons in the 1950s until the much later Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’. Nevertheless, we argue that it is important to look at the genealogy of ideas for it reveals broader patterns regarding the organisational learning of militant groups engaged in campaigns against a common enemy.

摘要

在整个 1950 年代，英国的帝国统治面临前所未有的挑战。随着民族主义和反殖民主义的火焰在世界各地熊熊燃烧，公民不服从、叛乱和恐怖主义席卷了其殖民地。在英国最重要的两个冷战战略前哨，北爱尔兰和塞浦路斯，爱尔兰共和军和 EOKA 的叛乱分子发动了武装运动，以破坏英国的统治。本文考察了 1955-59 年期间这两个岛屿上的叛乱，比较了 IRA 和 EOKA 各自采取的游击战方法。文章借鉴了英语和希腊语的原始资料以及其他经验证据，认为 IRA 和 EOKA 以互补的方式将他们的斗争解释为更广泛的民族解放斗争的一部分，最重要的是，表明对英帝国主义的共同理解。诚然，除了相互感知的“兄弟情谊”之外，爱尔兰共和军领导人并没有应用他们在 1950 年代在英国监狱中从 EOKA 成员那里学到的具体军事教训，直到晚得多的北爱尔兰“麻烦”。尽管如此，我们认为查看思想谱系很重要，因为它揭示了关于参与对抗共同敌人运动的激进组织的组织学习的更广泛模式。