Insurgency and Counterinsurgency
How insurgencies form, why they are so difficult to defeat, and what counterinsurgency strategies have worked and failed throughout history.
What Is an Insurgency?
An insurgency is an organized movement that uses a combination of political mobilization, guerrilla warfare, and subversion to challenge an established government or occupying power. Unlike conventional armies, insurgents avoid direct confrontation with superior military forces. Instead, they use hit-and-run tactics, blend into civilian populations, exploit grievances, and try to outlast their opponents. Mao Zedong's famous dictum that guerrillas must move among the people 'as a fish swims in the sea' captures the essential logic.
Insurgencies succeed when they tap into genuine political grievances, whether ethnic discrimination, economic exclusion, foreign occupation, or government corruption. The Viet Cong in South Vietnam, the Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviet Union, and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka all drew strength from populations that felt marginalized by the existing political order. Without this political foundation, insurgencies remain criminal enterprises rather than genuine political movements.