Counterinsurgency
Is it Counterintuitive?
The 20th century witnessed the most destructive wars in human history, but high intensity conventional wars were the exception, rather than the rule. Small wars, irregular warfare, insurgencies, and other violent conflicts dotted the historical landscape throughout the period.
The breakup of colonial empires after World War II, in particular, witnessed a number of revolutionary struggles that embroiled western powers in counterinsurgency warfare in Africa and Asia. Drawing on examples of counterinsurgency conflicts from 1899 to the present, explain how western powers dealt with counterinsurgency wars fought away from their homelands, the strategies they used in their quest for victory, and their success or failure in practice.
Small, irregular, insurgent warfare was far more regular during the twentieth century than mere terminology suggests. Western powers increasingly fought guerrilla wars against revolutionary opponents far away from their home countries. Throughout these wars, the success or failure of western powers rested on their abilities to navigate political compromise, ethnic or sectarian divisions, the westerner’s ability to adapt, domestic political situations, and closing gaps between the aims of government and the aims of insurgents.
