The Routledge Handbook of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

by Rich; Paul B.

• ISBN13: 9780415567336
• ISBN10: 0415567335
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-16
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This new handbook provides a wide-ranging overview of the current state of academic analysis and debate on insurgency and counter-insurgency, as well as an-up-to date survey of contemporary insurgent movements and counter-insurgencies.There has been an upsurge of scholarly interest in the field of insurgency and counter-insurgency over the past 30 years, and it is now a major subfield in the discipline of International Relations and Security Studies. In part, this reflects the increasing globalisation of insurgency and the interdependent nature of insurgent strategies and tactics. Student interest in the area has continued to burgeon too, despite the ending of most colonial insurgencies by the early 1980s and the resolution of guerrilla conflicts in Vietnam, Algeria and Southern Africa. Insurgency since this time has evolved into a variety of newer forms in the post-colonial era and has become linked to a variety of conflicts centred on trafficking in narcotics, precious stones and metals, hardwoods and child trafficking. In addition, many modern insurgencies are not necessarily linked to stable state structures but may be a product of fragile or weak state structures prone to degenerate into warlord formations centred on regional, ethnic or clan networks.Moreover, both insurgent and counter-insurgent military strategies have been considerably affected by the evolution of military technology in the post-Cold War era. Insurgent formations are no longer reliant upon the support and assistance of a few major powers involved in a wider Cold War conflict but on a global network of arms dealers. The range of weaponry has become increasingly sophisticated and theories of 'Fourth-Generation Warfare' have intruded into recent analyses of insurgency and counter insurgency, indicating that analyses of contemporary insurgent movement are a often closely related to weak state structures or state failure, as well as aspects of post-Cold War warfare broadly termed 'new wars'. These are shaped by sub-state movements forging and manufacturing newer and varied forms of identity ' often in response to the wider impact of a global media.This handbook will be of great interest to all students of insurgency and small wars, terrorism/counter-terrorism, strategic studies, security studies and IR in general, as well as professional military colleges and policymakers.

Author Biography

Paul B. Rich is co-editor of the journal Small Wars Insurgencies and author/editor of ten books. Isabelle Duyvesteyn is lecturer at the Department of History of International Relations at the Institute of History, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and author/editor of three books.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. viii
Notes on contributors	p. ix
Preface and acknowledgements	p. xiii
The study of insurgency and counterinsurgency	p. 1
Theoretical and analytical issues	p. 21
The historiography of insurgency	p. 23
Rethinking insurgency	p. 32
Changing forms of insurgency: pirates, narco gangs and failed states	p. 45
Cyberspace and insurgency	p. 54
Whither counterinsurgency: the rise and fall of a divisive concept	p. 67
Counterinsurgency and peace operations	p. 80
Insurgency, counterinsurgency and policing	p. 98
Intelligence-gathering, special operations and air strikes in modern counterinsurgency	p. 109
Ethics of counterinsurgency	p. 119
Counterinsurgency: the state of a controversial art	p. 128
Insurgent movements	p. 155
Insurgent movements in Africa	p. 157
Insurgency in Iraq 2003ù10	p. 172
Hezbollah and Hamas: Islamic insurgents with nationalist causes	p. 183 \
Insurgency in Southeast Asia	p. 198
Insurgencies in India	p. 208
Insurgency in Afghanistan	p. 218
Insurgent movements in Pakistan	p. 227
Post-Cold War insurgency and counterinsurgency in Latin America	p. 239
Counterinsurgency cases	p. 249
Trends in American counterinsurgency	p. 251
Israeli counterinsurgency: the never-ending 'whack-a-mole'	p. 263
From Belfast to Lashkar Gar via Basra: British counterinsurgency today	p. 276
Counterinsurgency in a non-democratic state: the Russian example	p. 286
Counterinsurgency in India	p. 301
Counterinsurgency in Sri Lanka: a successful model?	p. 312
Counterinsurgency in Pakistan	p. 324
China's society-centric counterterrorism approach in Xinjiang	p. 335
South African counterinsurgency: a historiographical overview	p. 347
Insurgency and counterinsurgency: some conclusions	p. 359
Index	p. 372
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