Some Definitions
 

Feel free to disagree:

"Insurgency may be defined as a struggle between a nonruling group and the ruling authorities in which the nonruling group consciously uses political resources (e.g. organizational expertise, propaganda, and demonstrations) and violence to destroy, reformulate, or sustain the basis of legitimacy of one or more aspects of politics (political community, political system, authorities, policies)." - Insurgency and Terrorism - Bard E. O'Neill

"An insurgent or revolutionary movement is defined as a subversive, illegal attempt to weaken, modify, or replace an existing governing authority through the protracted use or threatened use of force by an organized group of indigenous people outside the established governing structure." -HFCUI - HQS DA

Joint Publication 1-02, DoD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms (1994), defines "unconventional warfare" as "a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, normally of long duration, predominantly conducted by indigenous or surrogate forces who are organized, trained, equipped, supported and directed in varying degrees by an external source. It includes guerrilla warfare and other direct offensive, low visibility, covert or clandestine operations, as well as the indirect activities of subversion, sabotage, intelligence activities, and evasion and escape."

Guerrilla Warfare - Military and paramilitary operations conducted in enemy-held or hostile territory by irregular, predominantly indigenous forces. Also called GW. -DOD & NATO

Insurgency is a sub-set of UW.

An insurgency may be a part of UW, but not the other way around.

so, an insurgency could very well be unconventional war in it's infancy. ignore it and it will grow and gain momentun and support. especially when the ruling govt imposes tighter and tighter attempts to restrict rights of the citizenry and curtail the insurgency. even if the citizenry perceives that their rights are being diminished the fires of uw will be fanned. the result would be an inevitable growth of distrust, and fear in the established govt, and an increase in the growth of dissention, and the likelihood of an uprising.

:p

Hey, are you some kind of REVOLUTIONARY?

That would be how this country was founded!

you know the answer to that..... just a bunch of dirty little boys hiding in the woods doing dirty little things to the british... it is an evolution of sorts...

in discussing the differences between insurgency and gw wouldn't an evaluation or comparison of the role popular support plays be significant? one man's revolutionary... and all that!!:cool:

I don't think there are differences between an insurgency and gw - I was taught that gw and the underground are the two black pieces of insurgency.

Didn't say insurgency and GW, I said insurgency and UW, which is a different animal.

GW is also a sub-set of UW.

No, you didn't, but Jerry did. I should have quoted the original. Sorry.

No worries, my bad.

Jerry hasn't been around us for a while, it may take him a while to catch up.

Do you have the reading list for him?

LOL - I have breakfast with a client now. I'll get it for him when I get back. He won't read it though, those Echoes think they know already.

Okay, these terms keep popping up in discussions, frequently being used improperly.

All but one of these are the Joint Pub 1-02 definitions. This does not mean that they are necessarily all-inclusive or even correct in every case, but they are what the military means when they use the terms.

This is a good thread, and may deserve a sticky, since you must understand what the terms mean to have a meaningful discussion about them.

Also note how many interrelate. I have been at this for quite a while and still have to look things up regularly.

HTH.

TR


antiterrorism — Defensive measures used to reduce the vulnerability of individuals and property to terrorist acts, to include limited response and containment by local military forces. Also called AT. See also antiterrorism awareness; counterterrorism; proactive measures; terrorism. (JP 3-07.2)

asset (intelligence) — Any resource — person, group, relationship, instrument, installation, or supply — at the disposition of an intelligence organization for use in an operational or support role. Often used with a qualifying term such as agent asset or propaganda asset.

Auxiliary --- The Auxiliary provides logistical support to the resistance movement . Auxiliary units may contain communications ,material support, transportation, and other units whose mission is to provide logistics support to the resistance. The Auxiliary may at times conduct limited combat operations in order to support actions undertaken by the guerrilla force.

combatting terrorism — Actions, including antiterrorism (defensive measures taken to reduce vulnerability to terrorist acts) and counterterrorism (offensive measures taken to prevent, deter, and respond to terrorism), taken to oppose terrorism throughout the entire threat spectrum. Also called CBT. See also antiterrorism; counterterrorism.

counterguerrilla warfare — (*) Operations and activities conducted by armed forces, paramilitary forces, or nonmilitary agencies against guerrillas.

counterinsurgency — Those military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological, and civic actions taken by a government to defeat insurgency. Also called COIN.

countersabotage — That aspect of counterintelligence designed to detect, destroy, neutralize, or prevent sabotage activities through identification, penetration, manipulation, deception, and repression of individuals, groups, or organizations conducting or suspected of conducting sabotage activities.

countersubversion — That aspect of counterintelligence designed to detect, destroy, neutralize, or prevent subversive activities through the identification, exploitation, penetration, manipulation, deception, and repression of individuals, groups, or organizations conducting or suspected of conducting subversive activities.

counterterrorism — Operations that include the offensive measures taken to prevent, deter, preempt, and respond to terrorism. Also called CT. See also antiterrorism; combatting terrorism; terrorism. (JP 3-05)

guerrilla — A combat participant in guerrilla warfare. See also unconventional warfare.

guerrilla force — A group of irregular, predominantly indigenous personnel organized along military lines to conduct military and paramilitary operations in enemy-held, hostile, or denied territory. (JP 3-05)

insurgency — (*) An organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through use of subversion and armed conflict.

insurgent — Member of a political party who rebels against established leadership. See also antiterrorism; counterinsurgency; insurgency. (JP 3-07.2)

overt peacetime psychological operations programs — Those programs developed by combatant commands, in coordination with the chiefs of US diplomatic missions, that plan, support, and provide for the conduct of psychological operations, during military operations other than war, in support of US regional objectives, policies, interests, and theater military missions. Also called OP3. See also consolidation psychological operations; psychological operations. (JP 3-53)

perception management — Actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator’s objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations. See also psychological operations.

psychological operations — Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator’s objectives. Also called PSYOP. See also consolidation psychological operations; overt peacetime psychological operations programs; perception management.

resistance movement — An organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to resist the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability.

sabotage — An act or acts with intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of a country by willfully injuring or destroying, or attempting to injure or destroy, any national defense or war materiel, premises, or utilities, to include human and natural resources.

subversion — Action designed to undermine the military, economic, psychological, or political strength or morale of a regime. See also unconventional warfare.

terrorism — The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological. See also antiterrorism; combatting terrorism; counterterrorism; force protection condition; terrorist; terrorist groups. (JP 3-07.2)

terrorist — An individual who uses violence, terror, and intimidation to achieve a result. See also terrorism. (JP 3-07.2)

terrorist groups — Any element, regardless of size or espoused cause, that commits acts of violence or threatens violence in pursuit of its political, religious, or ideological objectives. See also terrorism. (JP 3-07.2)

unconventional warfare — A broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, normally of long duration, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces who are organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by an external source. It includes, but is not limited to, guerrilla warfare, subversion, sabotage, intelligence activities, and unconventional assisted recovery. Also called UW. (JP 3-05)

Thanks, TR. Very helpful. What's "HTH"? Hope that helps?

From a June 2003 Army TSP on "Paramilitary and Nonmilitary Organizations and Tactics":

What if the insurgents use conventional troops and tactics?