-
Local circumstances matter: the story of two peasant resistances in northwestern Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991 Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-03-09 Dejenie Fikremaryam
This paper aims to examine the strategies employed by the peasantry to defend their established rights and privileges against a dominant state. A careful analysis of archival and oral sources revea...
-
Prima Donnas in Kevlar zones. Challenges to the Unconventional Warfare efforts of the U.S. Special Forces during Operation Enduring Freedom Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-03-09 Anna M. Gielas
When Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) commenced in October 2001, the U.S. Special Forces (SF) were the first U.S. military unit on the ground in Afghanistan, utilising their Unconventional Warfare ...
-
The impact of precision strike technology on the warfare of non-state armed groups: case studies on Daesh and the Houthis Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Max Mutschler, Marius Bales, Esther Meininghaus
Precision strikes from a distance are a common practice of state warfare. However, the global proliferation of precision strike technologies, like missiles and armed drones, makes such weapons prog...
-
Mughal amphibious counterinsurgency in the Bay of Bengal’s hinterland: 1572-1612 Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Kaushik Roy
During the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Mughal attempt at empire building in eastern India was challenged by the Pathan chieftains and the Hindu zamindars. Besides the Mugha...
-
Urban warfare in the middle East: the battle of Mosul and the operations in Syria Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Andrea Beccaro
A change in modern warfare concerns the battlefield and the increasing urbanisation of conflicts. The article analyses the reason and consequences of conflict urbanisation comparing recent experien...
-
Hunting the watchmen the Ulster Defence Regiment and IRA strategy Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-03-01 Daniel Chesse
The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) were unique within the context of the Troubles-79% of their nearly 200 UDR casualties came while off-duty. This article frames these attacks, assesses their impact...
-
Al-Qaeda as a spatial orientated movement: interactions between transnational and local jihadism Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-02-15 James Paterson
This article argues that al-Qaeda exists as a spatially orientated movement, a movement that considers local dynamics, both national and sub-national drivers, as part of its ideological formation. ...
-
From alliance to ‘soft conquest’: the anatomy of the Turkish-Azerbaijani military alliance before and after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Levon Hovsepyan, Artyom A. Tonoyan
Military cooperation has been one of the milestones in Turkish-Azerbaijani relations since the early 1990s. A qualitatively new phase began in 2010 after the signing of the strategic agreement whic...
-
From rebel leaders to post-war intermediaries: evidence from Southern Syria Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Abdullah Al-Jabassini
This article investigates the distinct pathways and roles played by former rebel leaders in conditions of conflict transformation. Focusing on southern Syria, it offers a comparative analysis of th...
-
Autonomous cooperation: types of alliances between communities and combatants in civil wars Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Daniel Gómez-Uribe
Civilian cooperation with armed actors has been widely studied by conflict scholars. However, one aspect remains conceptually overlooked: instances where civilian communities cooperate while retain...
-
Westphalia from below: humanitarian intervention and the myth of 1648 Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Paul B Rich
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Ahead of Print, 2024)
-
‘Only a tree stands still to be cut down’: discoursing legitimation in narratives of the Nigeria-Biafra war and the IPOB movement (1967 to present) Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-02-05 Adeiza Isiaka
At sixty years, the Biafran movement has evolved, with actors and narratives shaped by new demographics, discourse modalities, and ideologies. While its most compelling leaders – Ojukwu and Kanu — ...
-
Was Gerry Adams a transformational leader? Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Michael Flavin
Gerry Adams was the foremost Irish Republican leader in The Troubles (1968–1998). This paper analyses the extent to which he was a transformational leader, shifting Republicanism from armed struggl...
-
The conceptual and doctrinal evolution on irregular warfare in Türkiye: 1919-1952 Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Arman Sert, Cenker Korhan Demir
This study investigates the evolution of concepts and doctrine on irregular warfare in Türkiye from 1919 to 1952, focusing on two primary research inquiries. It explores the conceptual approach tow...
-
The bandits’ world: recruitment strategies, command structure and motivations for mass casualty attacks in northwest Nigeria Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Oluwole Ojewale
This study analyses the dynamics of banditry in northwest Nigeria through qualitative and quantitative research methodology. To populate their cells, bandits apply economic incentives and coercion....
-
The Catalan separatist insurrection armament of 1926 in the shadow of the Irish armed decade Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Joan Esculies
After general Miguel Primo de Rivera’s coup d’état in Spain in 1923, Francesc Macià went into French exile. The leader of the Catalan separatist movement and his political-military organization, Es...
-
Towards “modern” counterinsurgency in Sub-Saharan Africa: lessons learnt from Nigeria and Mozambique Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Jakub Zbytovsky, Jan Prouza
This article investigates counterinsurgencies in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially those opposing insurgencies with an ethnic and/or sectarian character. Using a most-similar method of case selection,...
-
The Iranian revolutionary guard corps: defining Iran’s military doctrine Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Lawrence E. Cline
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2024)
-
Atrocity labelling: from crimes against humanity to genocide studies Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Paul B. Rich
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2024)
-
Jihadist sniper culture: propagandising the ‘caliphate’ through the crosshair Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2024-01-13 Pieter Nanninga
Snipers have gained increasing prominence in modern warfare and insurgencies, both in actual combat and in military propaganda. Research on snipers, however, has remained largely limited to their s...
-
The Greek revolution: 1821 and the making of modern Europe Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Marina Eleftheriadou
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2024)
-
Directorate S: the CIA and America’s secrete wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-17 S. Yaqub Ibrahimi
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Ahead of Print, 2023)
-
Atrocity Labelling: From Crimes Against Humanity to Genocide Studies by Markus P Beham Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-19 Paul B. Rich
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Ahead of Print, 2023)
-
Uncivil war: the British army and the troubles, 1966-1975 Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-18 Geraint Hughes
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Ahead of Print, 2023)
-
Book review - proxy war in Yemen Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Melvyn Fookes
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Ahead of Print, 2023)
-
‘A guide for measuring resiliency and resistance’ Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-14 Robert S. Burrell, John Collison
This essay addresses the critical need to apply a more advanced human-centric model in assessing current levels of governmental and societal resilience and resistance to subversion and coercion, as...
-
The counterinsurgent imagination: a new intellectual history Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Mujeeb Kanth
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2024)
-
High-modernist intervention and the prolonged frontier conflict in Metekel, North-West Ethiopia: the case of the grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-10 Dagnachew Ayenew Yeshiwas, Gutema Imana Keno, Tsega Endale Etefa, Tompson Makahamadze
This study explores the interface of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a high-modernist hydraulic scheme, with the protracted frontier conflict in Metekel Zone of Benishangul Gumuz Region...
-
Introduction Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-10 Paul B Rich
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Vol. 34, No. 8, 2023)
-
Multinational Joint Task Force’s counterinsurgency in the Lake Chad Basin and the consequences of Chadian exit for the Northeast, Nigeria Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-10 Nsemba Edward Lenshie, Patience Kondu Jacob, Confidence Nwachinemere Ogbonna, Buhari Shehu Miapyen, Paul Onuh, Aminu Idris, Christian Ezeibe
The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), comprising soldiers from the Lake Chad Basin countries (Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Benin), has been countering insurgency in the region since 20...
-
Botha, Smuts and the great war Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Paul B Rich
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Ahead of Print, 2023)
-
Conflict in early medieval Ireland, Adomnán of Iona and the law of the Innocents (697 AD): an early law of war Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-05 James W. Houlihan
This article explores the making of the Irish Law of the Innocents that sought to protect women, children, clerics and other non-arms-bearing people in periods of conflict, people usually referred ...
-
The trajectory of Islamic State Khorasan Province and Afghan Taliban rivalry Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Ihsanullah Omarkhail, Liu Guozhu
This article claims that the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has controlled Islamic State. It examines the rivalry between the two insurgent groups, which have various ideological and regi...
-
Rebel Governance: an analysis of the Taliban’s Governance from 2001-2021 Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-11-27 Weeda Mehran, Sarah Habib, Zsuzsana Riedel
This paper assesses the Taliban’s role in delivering four key services – taxation, security, justice, and education – from 2001 to 2021. Our analysis highlights that the provision of these services...
-
Zone of rebellion: Kurdish insurgent and the Turkish state Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-11-20 Berkan Özgür
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Ahead of Print, 2023)
-
Bollywood, Maratha imperialism and Hindu nationalism Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Kaushik Roy
Critical scholars assert that the Bharatiya Janata Party is using commercial Hindi films, controlled by the censor board, to portray a ‘Hindu’ version of Indian nationality. Left-liberal intellectu...
-
When Militias capture the state: evidence from Lebanon, Iraq, and Sudan Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-11-09 Federico Manfredi Firmian
Studies on militias tend to focus on state policies, such as government collusion with militias during counterinsurgencies or post-conflict demobilization programs. This article examines militia st...
-
Rwanda’s War in Mozambique: Road-Testing a Kigali Principles approach to counterinsurgency? Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-10-06 Ralph Shield
Rwandan military behavior in Mozambique operationalizes Kigali’s rhetorical commitment to aggressively defend endangered civilians. The counterinsurgency doctrine applied in Cabo Delgado balances i...
-
Negotiating ‘Hearts and Minds’: conflict, infrastructure, and community support in Colombia Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-09-19 Clara Voyvodic
Research has shown that the counterinsurgent proposition of ‘winning Hearts and Minds’ is more complex than building a road. This paper examines how project workers in three infrastructure projects...
-
Unholy alignment and boomerang civil conflicts: Examining how conflicts beget conflicts through external states support for rebels Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-09-15 Thomas Ameyaw-Brobbey
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on external state support for rebel movements by developing an analytical tool to explain how external support for rebels leads to civil conflict onset and intensification in the target state and how conflict reverses to the sponsoring state, engendering conflict diffusion and continuation. I present a two-fold argument that a cooperative relationship between external states
-
Intercommunal violence, insurgency, and agropastoral conflict in the Lake Chad Basin region Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-09-12 Edward Newman, Pegah Hashemvand Khiabani, Remi Chandran
ABSTRACT The Lake Chad Basin region has experienced a steep increase in violence and instability since 2010, associated with ethnic identity conflict, ecological degradation, and insurgency. This article explores the association between the activities of insurgency groups – focussing on the perpetration of violence against civilians and state actors – and agropastoral conflict, against a background
-
Taliban’s PSYOP – strategic enabler for the 2021 offensive Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Robin Burda
ABSTRACT The paper focuses primarily on the Taliban’s psychological operations (PSYOP) during their offensive in 2021. The unexpected rapidity of the Taliban’s advance led to a question about the role of the Taliban’s PSYOP during the offensive, which is the primary research problem. The paper is not only an intrinsic case study, but also an instrumental part of a broader research of PSYOP of non-state
-
Insurgent movements and paths to negotiation: a case study of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) in India’s northeast Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-08-25 Jimmy Sebastian Daimary, Pahi Saikia
What drives insurgent groups to negotiation? The paper examines the conditions that facilitate insurgents to negotiate with governments. It examines the case of National Democratic Front of Borolan...
-
Parmanu: the story of Pokhran (2018)- the saffronization of India’s quest for a nuclear weapon Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-08-07 C. Christine Fair
ABSTRACT Parmanu (2018) is a commercial action-cum-spy flick that recounts a highly stylized history of India’s efforts to become a Pokhrannuclear weapons state through the narrative device of the Mahabharat, one of India’s two great Sanskrit epics. In doing so, it renders India’s quest for nuclear weapons in explicitly communal terms rather than national terms. Parmanu exemplifies Modi’s co-optation
-
Introduction Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-07-12 Paul B Rich
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Vol. 34, No. 5, 2023)
-
The insurgent’s dilemma: A struggle to prevail Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-07-09 Nelson Kasfir
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Vol. 34, No. 5, 2023)
-
The challenges of military adaptation to the cyber domain: a case study of the Netherlands Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-07-13 Max Smeets
ABSTRACT Whilst NATO speaks increasingly publicly about the military use of cyber operations, adaptation to the cyber domain has reportedly been challenging for most militaries. Little research has sought to understand the nature of these challenges. This study seeks to address this gap through a case study of the Netherlands. By utilizing a range of primary and secondary sources, this article reveals
-
Counterinsurgency as order-making: refining the concepts of insurgency and counterinsurgency in light of the Somali civil war Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-07-11 Michael Weddegjerde Skjelderup, Mukhtar Ainashe
ABSTRACT In this paper, we argue that the current insurgency and counterinsurgency discourse is dominated by concepts that are too narrow and too isolated from the wider civil war literature within which insurgency and counterinsurgency occur. Rather than accounting for the complex political processes and wide range of forces and actors that shape conflict dynamics, the dominant insurgency and counterinsurgency
-
Insurgencies & organized crime: the essential elements of information Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-07-04 Lawrence E. Cline
ABSTRACT Operational analysis of irregular warfare typically focuses on politically-based actions (typically violent) against governments. Intelligence services very often base their planning, collection efforts, and analysis on opposing insurgent or terrorist groups, proxy forces, and governments that might be supporting them. A key threat to stability in these complex security environments – organized
-
Narco drones: tracing the evolution of cartel aerial tactics in Mexico’s low-intensity conflicts Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-06-18 Ghaleb Krame, Vlado Vivoda, Amanda Davies
ABSTRACT This study examines the evolution of drone tactics employed by drug cartels in Mexico from 2017 to 2022. The research traces the increasing sophistication of drone technology, payload capacities, and adaptability of cartels in employing airborne drones in low-intensity conflicts It also highlights the increasing reliance on drones for various purposes. The analysis reveals insights into how
-
Mapping premodern small war: The case of the Thirty Years War (1618-48) Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-06-14 Peter H. Wilson, Katerina Tkacova, Thomas Pert
ABSTRACT The example of the Thirty Years War (1618–48) demonstrates that small war was already integral to the conduct of premodern hostilities. Commanders employed these methods with a purpose and generally tried to limit the accompanying violence to preserve discipline and effectiveness, as well as their claims to be waging a just war. We explain why conventional histories have neglected the presence
-
Sergei Loznitsa, ethereal documentarian: untangling the Russia-Ukraine war in the Kiev Trial, Donbass, and Maidan Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Bianca Berman
ABSTRACT On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a major escalation of a war that had been persisting since 2014. This article explores three of Sergei Loznitsa’s films set in Ukraine and examines the way in which their shared observational style informs the Russia-Ukraine war and may influence viewers’ perceptions of the complexities of the conflict. A close analysis
-
A light footprint in Syria: operational art in operation inherent resolve Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-04-07 Bo Arnold, John Nagl
ABSTRACT Special Operations Forces (SOF) played an important role in defeating the Islamic State (ISIS) physical caliphate in Syria. Acting as a force multiplier, SOF successfully mobilized, armed, supplied, and directed an indigenous guerrilla force across northern Syria against a numerically superior entrenched enemy. This effort was underpinned by a flexible operational approach that adapted operational
-
The utilization of special forces in peace missions: perspectives from South Africa Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-04-02 Louis Bester
ABSTRACT The fascination with special forces could be ascribed to the prominence of their use in contemporary conflicts across the globe. There is, however, a paradox of employing such a highly lethal force in order to pursuit peace. With peacekeeping evolving parallel with the strategic environment, especially in Africa, the trend towards more robust interventions has become prevalent since the end
-
Potemkin on the Dnieper: the Failure of Russian Airpower in the Ukraine war Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-03-29 Sean M. Wiswesser
ABSTRACT Russia’s airpower failure in the Ukraine war was due to incompetent air campaigning and execution, coupled with the success of a highly effective Ukrainian ground-based air defense. The Russian Air Forces (VKS) attempted to execute what they term a ‘Strategic Air Operation’ based on a ‘non-contact’ doctrine, articulated widely in recent years. But they could not achieve this in practice. As
-
The logics of atrocities: a local official and the small wars in Taiping China, 1851–1864 Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-03-17 Weiting Guo
ABSTRACT Using an autobiography written by a Qing local official, Duan Guangqing (段光清, 1798–1878), this article explores the personal experiences of local officials who developed ways of coping with atrocities, trauma, and various local affairs during the Taiping War (1851–1864). Contrary to studies that focus on large-scale combat operations in Taiping China, this essay adopts a decentered approach
-
‘Shaping hearts and minds: claret operations in Borneo, 1965–1966’ Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-03-01 Christopher Tuck
ABSTRACT For Western militaries, the choice between enemy-centric and population-centric approaches to unconventional warfare is really no choice at all. Contemporary counterinsurgency doctrines are clear on the decisive importance of hearts and minds in delivering success: in these conflicts, the population is the prize. As this article identifies, however, context may limit in important ways the
-
Insurgency, counter-insurgency, and the military and security dimensions of South African racial segregation Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-03-01 Paul B Rich
Published in Small Wars & Insurgencies (Vol. 34, No. 2, 2023)
-
Friend and Foe: Russia–Turkey relations before and after the war in Ukraine Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-02-28 Vicken Cheterian
ABSTRACT The interaction between Russia and Turkey since 2015 suggests a new quality in foreign affairs combining tactical alliance and strategic competition. The Russian invasion of Ukraine did not change this. By studying the cases of Syria, Libya, and Nagorno-Karabakh, we observe not only elements of geopolitical competition and cooperation but also that the combination of the two contradictory
-
‘Destructors’ in action, support for insurgents: case study of the Third Silesian Uprising Small Wars & Insurgencies Pub Date : 2023-02-14 Hubert Królikowski
ABSTRACT After regaining independence in 1918, Poland faced many fundamental and strategic challenges. One of them was the issue of border crossings on the German-Polish border in Silesia. It was a region dominated by modern heavy industry, to which both the modern states laid claim. The course of the border was to be decided by a plebiscite, but the parties to the conflict resorted to violence and