Insurrection

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An insurrection , also a war of insurrection , (from the Latin insurgere "to rise", English insurgency ) is an armed uprising or a revolt against the existing civil or political authority. The rebels and leaders of such an insurrection are called insurgents . They wage an open, often clandestinely started or asymmetrical struggle against an authority that is considered illegitimate or an assumed or actual foreign occupying power .

Tactics and strategies

The insurgents' tactics and strategies are as varied as their choice of targets. Surprise attacks are among the most frequently chosen measures. Additionally, insurgents often team up with outlaws and double agents to achieve their goals. Some insurgents are also supported by hostile or rival governments of the state.

Insurgents often use violent means such as bombings , kidnapping , hostage taking , kidnappings and shootings, to harm the state - sometimes without any particular regard for civilian casualties. Other insurgents limit their attacks to military facilities and consciously avoid collateral damage . Under the conditions of an existing power opposed by the insurgents, various means and tools, including communicative, ideological, conspiratorial, military and often also political-democratic elements, are used in the preparation and also in part of the implementation of such actions . Often times, insurgent groups do not reveal their identity or that of their leaders. Usually an individual of the movement with a particularly cult symbolic character becomes its leader. Insurgents use a variety of asymmetrical war strategies, as their military capabilities are usually inferior to those of state power . Insurgents often attack military and preferably unarmored targets from ambush with self-loaders and anti-tank weapons . Heavy traffic and densely populated areas offer the insurgents protection and hiding places and represent a tactical advantage for an ambush. Such attacks are usually canceled before the targeted target can call for support or reinforcement.

Countermeasures

The fight against insurgents by the regular military is a separate branch of military theory. Today one speaks of asymmetrical warfare , in English also of counterinsurgency . Many armies have special forces that specialize in this type of combat. Because the measures are aimed at averting a danger from parts of the own population, the tasks of the police, domestic secret services and the military are often mixed up .

Controversy

There are numerous examples in which politically unstable countries, military dictatorships or authoritarian-led states have taken the existence of a relatively small armed resistance group as an opportunity to fight all peaceful oppositionists using asymmetrical warfare. One of the best-known examples of the misuse of a counterinsurgency strategy is the time of the Argentine military dictatorship , during which around 30,000 people disappeared without a trace , mostly left-wing and liberal opposition members. The term dirty war has established itself as a term for such an approach . There are also examples in which an insurrection was secretly supported or initiated by the state itself in order to obtain a pretext for violent intervention against any political opponent .

See also

literature

  • Marcio M. Alves, Konrad Detrez, Carlos Marighela (eds.): Smash the wealth islands of the third world. With the manual of the guerrillas of Sao Paulo. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1971, ISBN 3-499-11453-4 . (Series: rororo currently 1453/1454)
  • Ivan Arreguín-Toft: How the Weak Win Wars. A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict . Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-83976-9 .
  • Sebastian Buciak (ed.): Asymmetrical conflicts in the mirror of time . Publishing house Dr. Köster, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89574-669-7 .
  • Franz von Erlach , lieutenant colonel in the federal artillery staff: The wars of freedom of small peoples against large armies . Haller'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Bern 1867.
  • Schröfl, Pankratz: Asymmetrical warfare . Nomos, 2004, ISBN 3-8329-0436-0 .
  • John A. Nagl: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam: Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife . Praeger Frederick, 2002, ISBN 0-275-97695-5 .
  • Counterinsurgency. In: Dierk Walter: Between jungle war and atomic bomb. British Visions of the War of the Future 1945-1971. Hamburg 2009, pp. 451–458.
  • Brian Crozier: The rebels. Anatomy of the insurrection. Munich 1961. (Original edition: The rebels. A study of postwar insurrection. London 1960)
  • Andrew J. Birtle: US Army counterinsurgency and contingency operations doctrine, 1860-1941. Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, DC 1998. ISBN 978-0-7881-7327-1
  • Andrew J. Birtle: US Army counterinsurgency and contingency operations doctrine, 1942-1976 . Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, DC 2007. ISBN 978-0-16-072959-1 .
  • Benjamin C. Schwarz: American counterinsurgency doctrine and El Salvador. The frustrations of reform and the illusions of nation building. Santa Monica, CAL (Rand) 1991, ISBN 0-8330-1218-5 .
  • Thomas N. Greene (ed.): The Guerrilla and how to fight him. Selections from the Marine Corps Gazette , New York u. a. (Praeger) 1965.
  • Florian Grosser "Theories of the Revolution for Introduction", Hamburg, Junius Verlag, 2013, 212 pp.

Web links

Wiktionary: Insurrection  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence