Some Thoughts I Found Interesting on Guerrilla Warfare
 

1. Geography has historically been very important. Guerrilla movements have usually preferred regions that are not very accessible. Areas in which they are difficult to locate and the enemy can not deploy his full strength. Such areas are ideal in the organization periods.

However, the hardships go both ways.

Also, if relegated to remote areas, it is hard for the guerrillas to be effective at other than attacking remote out posts.

Geography is less important now. Technological advances have made the guerrillas easier to locate.

Urbanization has reduced the political importance of rural areas.

Guerrilla movements need bases and a steady flow of supplies.

2. Guerrilla wars very often occur in areas in which such wars have occurred before.

This may be due in part to geographical factors.

May also be due to the hold of central governments being weak or non-existent in these areas.

Cultural traditions also play a role.

3. There is a negative correlation between guerrilla warfare and the degree of economic development. There have been few peasant guerrilla wars in modern times in which acute agrarian demands constituted the central issue.

4. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries there have been three main types of guerrilla wars.
Yjey have been directed against foreign occupants. Guerrilla warfare has been the favorite tactic of separatist, minority movements fighting the central government. Guerrilla warfare against the native incumbents has been the rule in Latin America and in a few other countries.

But the national, patriotic element has always been heavily emphasized even if the domestic rulers were he target; they were attacked as foreign hirelings by the true patriots fighting for national unity and independence.

Most guerrilla wars are nationalist/separatist, not Marxist/Leninist

Good stuff. Thanks. Where'd you find it?

Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical & Critical Study Walter Laquer

Its pretty good. He keeps drifting off into terrorism. My guess in an attempt to keep it relevant and because the difference is hard to distinguish. He wrote a companion study on terrorism that I also have and apparently one of the two together.

Also over looks or barely mentions movements I consider to be good examples - the FARC as case in point. Original edition was 1956, the one I have has a new introduction and is from 1986. Some of the movements he discusses in the past tense are still active - jumped the gun I guess.

Good history though. In both the Guerrilla Warfare and Terrorism books.

My copy keeps getting delayed. Damn Amazon.co.uk; typical British service.

Are Guerrilla Warfare strategies becoming larger in scale? Looking at certain groups in the middle east, it seems that Guerrillas are increasingly state-sponsored not only in supplies etc, but also in location. This may be because borders in these areas were artificially created during the Days of the Empires, and do not reflect cultural boundaries. This facilitates cross-border activity.

Does that hold water?

Solid

I would say they are getting smaller. Mostly because they have to move into more urban areas to survive and be affective.

The state sponsorship has always been there. Where would the Vietnamese have been without the Soviets and Chinese and safe havens (except from SOG) in Laos and Cambodia?

Very few movements have survived without the ability to seek safe haven in a country with ajacent borders.

Also, the white side political party is usually outlawed and forced to work externally. These parties are important for maintaining relationships and raising funds. IRA, PLO, etc.

At the risk of starting a philosophical discussion, I think it is, IMHO, important not to use guerrillas and guerrilla warfare interchangeably. Guerrilla forces are the overt arm of guerrilla warfare but may not be the most important aspect of the movement and may not surface until all the conditions are right for their employment. The underground is usually the controlling aspect for the operation and is normally in place to provide support, direction, intelligence and C2 for the effort long before folks may even be aware that their is a guerrilla force in existance. Also do not be too hasty to rule out the effectiveness of urban guerrilla operations. While their organization would be highly cellular and more like underground operations they still could be supported by an outside underground operating clandestinely in another country and calling the shots as to when to strike and when to remain dormant. I think that should be evident with what is going on in the world today.

Jack Moroney
Für die Sicherheit

I can practically guarantee it. LOL But nothing wrong with that!

Well said sir. However, I am not sure if I believe in the concept of the urban guerrilla or operation. I tend to think of urban guerrillas and operations as terrorism.

Could you provide an example of an outside underground operating clandestinely in another country? Are they clandestine to the target country or clandestine to the host country?

U.S. OSS in Occupied France, WW II?

TR

If the government police infrastructure functions adequately, can't urban guerrilla cells be prevented from growing to an unmanageable size? It seems that all the successful ones (Iraq etc) the Government forces either lack policing ability or the guerrilla movement has existed previously.

Solid

Re: Some Thoughts I Found Interesting on Guerrilla Warfare
 

This is a little bit of the chicken and egg, but geography is likely not the root cause in these cases, but rather the lack of infrastructure that would facilitate the development of a common identity between a more accessible and more geographically isolated groups.

<<Could you provide an example of an outside underground operating clandestinely in another country? Are they clandestine to the target country or clandestine to the host country?>>

Not in this forum, but I think that it would not be too far off the mark to expect the Cubans in Miami, any number of African nations that are fostering uprisings in countries from which the ruling elite has been displaced, and I am sure we have some communist organizations from the newly liberated eastern European countries that haven't given up trying to get back into power. The old Yugoslavia comes to mind.

Jack Moroney

Cubans in Miami - great choice. Never occurred to me. Thank you sir.