Insurgency/Counterinsurgency(COIN)

Landscapes of political memories: War legacies and land negotiations in Laos

by Ian Baird

Ian G. Baird and Philippe Le Billon (Published online, May 2012) Political Geography

Wars and their aftermaths frequently transform land use and ownership, reshaping ‘post-conflict’ landscapes through... more Wars and their aftermaths frequently transform land use and ownership, reshaping ‘post-conflict’ landscapes through new boundaries, population movements, land reforms and conditions of access. Within a global context of controversial land concessions and farmland acquisitions, we bring to light the continued salience of historical memories of war in the ways land conflicts are being negotiated in Laos. Considering circumstances at different scalesdfrom bilateral government relations to village-level claimsdwe find that political capital linked to memories of wartime affiliations have crucial spatial and place-based connections, and that they affect the ways investors, government officials and villagers negotiate over land concessions. Ethnographic evidence, spatial analysis and a survey of expatriate development workers engaged with land issues in Laos suggest that such ‘political memories’ are an important but often overlooked factor in shaping an uneven concessions landscape. We discuss implications for foreign development organizations that tend to privilege technical and legal aspects of land
management over such political dimensions.

Straddling the border : A marginal history of guerilla warfare and 'counter-insurgency' in the Indonesian borderlands

by Michael Eilenberg

Modern Asian Studies [Cambridge University Press] 2011, Vol 45 (6): 1423–1463.

Post-independence ethnic minorities inhabiting the Southeast Asian borderlands were willingly or unwillingly pulled... more Post-independence ethnic minorities inhabiting the Southeast Asian borderlands were willingly or unwillingly pulled into the macro politics of territoriality and state formation. The rugged and hilly borderlands delimiting the new nation-states became battlefronts of state-making and spaces of confrontation between divergent political ideologies. In the majority of the Southeast Asian borderlands, this implied violent disruption in the lives of local borderlanders that came to affect their relationship to their nation-state. A case in point is the ethnic Iban population living along the international border between the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Based on local narratives, the aim of this paper is to unravel the little known history of how the Iban segment of the border population in West Kalimantan became entangled in the highly militarized international disputes with neighbouring Malaysia in the early 1960s, and in subsequent military co-operative ‘anti-communist’ ‘counter-insurgency’ efforts by the two states in the late 1960–1970s. This paper brings together facets of national belonging and citizenship within a borderland context with the aim of understanding the historical incentives behind the often ambivalent, shifting and unruly relationship between marginal citizens like the Iban borderlanders and their nation-state.

Abductions: Maoists on top in every scenario

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published in New Indian Express, 6 May 2012 & Sunday Standard, 6 May 2012

On the surface, it appears that the Odisha government came out relatively unscathed from the month-long abduction... more On the surface, it appears that the Odisha government came out relatively unscathed from the month-long abduction episodes involving two Italians and an MLA. Only a handful of the prisoners were released in exchange. In Chhattisgarh too, with pressure on the Maoists increasing even from their known apologists, it is quite possible that the abducted collector too would be released without the state having to concede too much. Just like the tunes of Ram Dhun marked the release of the MLA in Odisha attempting to depict a peaceful resolution of the episode, Chhattisgarh too would find reason to boast about its methods of negotiating differently. So does it mean that it’s back to normal till one more high-profile abduction takes place? Or do the states have to introspect what these episodes have cost them?

Grievance, Mobilisation and State Response: An examination of the Naxalite Insurgency in India

by Chas Morrison

Published in the April 2012 issue of "Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security"

This paper explores the Naxalite insurgency in India in terms of causal mechanisms that lead to the intensification of... more This paper explores the Naxalite insurgency in India in terms of causal mechanisms that lead to the intensification of rural civil conflict by focusing specifically on grievance, mobilisation and government responses to rebellion. Realist theory is inadequate when analysing the causal factors of complex insurgencies and the mechanisms leading to their continuation. This case illustrates some aspects of intra-state conflict in a very large country, in terms of geography and population, and how the rebels have mobilised grievances at local level. New Delhi has addressed the conflict as both a development and a security challenge, and consequently has oscillated between repression and concession in its responses. This approach has resulted neither in reduction of grievances through adequate rural development, nor in consistent armed response to the Naxalite threat. Without a comprehensive and clear set of state responses, the violence is likely to continue.

Urban Irregular Warfare and Violence Against Civilians: Evidence From a Colombian City

by Gonzalo Vargas

Explaining violence against civilians in the Middle Magdalena Valley, Colombia (1996-2004)

by Gonzalo Vargas

Drugs, Hearts and Minds: Irregular War and the Coca Economy in South Bolivar, Colombia (1996–2004)

by Gonzalo Vargas

Stand and Fight: Lessons from the Transition Mission in Iraq

by Paulo Shakarian

Paulo Shakarian, Armor Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2007

Red Teaming Criminal Insurgency

by John P. Sullivan

Co-authored with Adam Elkus at 'Red Team Journal,' 30 January 2009.

A growing need exists to analyze the problem of criminal insurgency and develop new analytical models. Our aim is to... more A growing need exists to analyze the problem of criminal insurgency and develop new analytical models. Our aim is to summarize the problem and introduce several analytical models that can be used in simulations and red team exercises.

The border within: India and Manipur

by Abhijit Roy

Essay in 'Creativity Beyond Borders' ed. John Hutnyk. Pavement Books, London. (forthcoming in 2012).

Excerpt:
...So the very portrayal of Sharmila being caught between two conflicting options of the political and... more Excerpt:
...So the very portrayal of Sharmila being caught between two conflicting options of the political and the personal would be an obfuscation of the very basis of the Manipur protests, since the political is very much a personal concern here like ‘love’. The relative autonomy of the personal in everyday practice is what the Manipur protesters are fighting for. It is not readily available as a right, the reason why it is to be contingently evoked in protests. The private is in abeyance here, not the personal. By thwarting the historical association of the personal with the private, this unique form of dissent creates a new public, a public which has to strenuously but compulsively imagine itself through the allegory of the body, the suffering body possibly. Private pleasure is quite an actual possibility, but for the protesting subject there doesn’t seem to be any other equally effective public rhetoric beyond the ‘personal’, manifestations of which are always potent with ‘extreme’ and ‘shocking’ forms.

What the supporters of Irom, infuriated by The Telegraph report, possibly meant by the mainstream media’s ploy to “shift focus away from the struggle” was not the shifting focus from the public to the private. They were possibly infuriated by the way the report tried to equate the personal exclusively with the private and thus take the personal away from the struggle. By pushing us to rethink yet another border, Manipur stands as a unique borderland in the world, at least in India. Unlike the Pakistan, Bangladesh and China borders in the country, this border with Myanmar is increasingly becoming difficult to understand without considering the other border, the border within, the border between India and its north east.

Not Just a Job, an Adventure: Drafting the U.S. Civil Service for Counterinsurgencies

by Michael Clauser

It's become trite to state that the solution for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is "political," and not... more It's become trite to state that the solution for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is "political," and not solely "military," in nature. Both Presidents Bush and Obama made the case that the purpose of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan was to provide a security space allowing for national and local governance to take hold and grow. But while President Bush found five brigades to surge into Iraq and President Obama committed 30,000 additional forces to Afghanistan, neither President could find adequate numbers of —foreign and civil servants to accompany our men and women in uniform. U.S. non-military civilian numbers in both countries remain low. One senior official estimated that U.S. civilian personnel in Afghanistan total around 1,000 strong, just one percent of the military footprint in that country. Even now, most of these are found in the crowded embassy in the capital. If the U.S. is serious about winning the war in Afghanistan through a political solution, Congress should change current law and begin to draft civil servants with the right skill sets and training for national objectives abroad.

India's Northeast Region in 2011: Declining Violence and Distant Peace

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published in Times of Assam, 21 December 2011

2011 was the year of consolidation of the "absence of violence-phenomenon" that has dawned in India's... more 2011 was the year of consolidation of the "absence of violence-phenomenon" that has dawned in India's Northeast for the past few years. Most parts of this rebellious region have reported declining trends in armed violence. Many of the mature insurgency movements, which appeared to be intractable for a long time, have run out of steam. Cooperation from neighbouring Bangladesh has managed to achieve what the decades-long military, development and political initiatives by the Indian government could not. And yet, the goal of establishing durable peace in the region, looks some distance away. This year end assessment is an attempt to survey the ongoing peace processes in the region in terms of their proximity to final solutions.

Transforming Counterinsurgent Strategy - Using the Topography of Intelligence

by Lukas Milevski

Infinity Journal 2/1 (December 2011), 21-24.

Politics, Religion and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda

by Paul Jackson

Part of the Religions and Development research programme

This paper outlines the current situation in Northern Uganda and examines whether conventional
approaches to... more This paper outlines the current situation in Northern Uganda and examines whether conventional
approaches to conflict analysis produce a convincing diagnosis of the causes of the protracted conflict
between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). It concludes that the
reasons for the war are multifaceted and do not neatly fit within any contemporary conflict theory
without leaving significant gaps in the analysis. The paper highlights one of those gaps, the role of
religion.
The paper draws on a variety of secondary sources and the author’s extensive work in Africa,
including Uganda, between 1996 and 2008. The history of the conflict in northern Uganda and the
evolution of the LRA are outlined. With no access to significant economic resources such as
diamonds or oil, no environmental driver, and no clash of civilizations, the war in northern Uganda
appears to confound much conventional analysis of the rationality of violence in Africa. Clearly the key
initial actors felt that they had lost out under the new regime and feared that Museveni would seek
vengeance for the violence perpetrated by an Acholi-dominated military. However over time, those
involved with the initial drivers have become fewer, as the ranks of the LRA have become filled with
younger fighters, frequently abducted and then initiated.
The analysis concludes that
 Joseph Kony, the LRA’s leader, has developed a cosmology based on a sense of victimhood that has
been reinforced by the continual recruitment of child soldiers. This cosmology provides an internal
management mechanism based on terror. Magical belief is commonly associated with lack of
understanding, and magic is used by Kony and the LRA to rationalize something that is not understood –
social exclusion. To the extent that the LRA has an ideology, it is anti-modern, anti-developmental and
anti-state.
 The real key to the conflict is a massive failure of governance, which has contributed to a worsening
cycle of social exclusion that has manifested itself as violent rejection of the status quo and a desire to
return to a previous situation in which the Acholi had a better position. The Acholi civilian population feels
socio-economically and politically excluded from a state perceived to be ethnically biased. It is caught
between a rock and a hard place, between the army on the one hand and the LRA on the other.
256 Working Paper 43
The questions for conflict theory raised by this analysis relate to the need to include a religious
worldview that does not fit with conventional explanations of conflict and to assess how far such a
cosmology can influence an insurgency group to become an anti-development, anti-modern
resistance movement.

A Mujahideen Conundrum: The multiple faces and roles of the Iranian MeK

by Eduardo Lacerda

This paper attempts to understand the ambiguous and multifaceted role played by the Islamic-Socialist organization... more This paper attempts to understand the ambiguous and multifaceted role played by the Islamic-Socialist organization Mojāhedin-e Khalq (MeK) in its trajectory from anti-Shah dissident to anti-American terrorist, from American protégé to pro-western spy. The American troops protect the MeK members as a politically threatened minority while at the same time the US Department of State classifies it as FTO- Foreign Terrorist Organization. I argue that historical changes and political choices of both the USA and Iran prompted the MeK to assume diverse and even contradictory roles, while attempting to reach its main goal of defeating the Islamic Regime of Iran.

Suicide Bombings in Operation Iraqi Freedom

by John P. Sullivan

Land Warfare Paper Co-authored with Robert J. Bunker and John P. Sullivan (Land Warfare Paper 46W, September 2004)

The authors' research details about the historical and strategic context of this form of warfare, how it has affected... more The authors' research details about the historical and strategic context of this form of warfare, how it has affected coalition forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom and how the U.S. Army needs to adapt to the enemy’s continuing use of suicide attacks in the future.

Insurgencia Criminal en las Américas

by John P. Sullivan

At 'Small Wars Journal,' 27 March 2011. This article was orginally published in English at 'Small Wars Journal' as "Criminal Insurgency in the Americas" on 13 February 2011.

Organizaciones criminales transnacionales y las pandillas están amenazando instituciones estatales en todas partes de... more Organizaciones criminales transnacionales y las pandillas están amenazando instituciones estatales en todas partes de las Américas. En circunstancias extremas, los carteles, las pandillas o maras, las organizaciones de tráfico de drogas, y sus encargados de hacer cumplir paramilitares están librando de facto insurgencias criminales para liberarse de la influencia del estado.

Una gran variedad de pandillas criminales están librando una guerra entre si y contra el estado. La violencia criminal desenfrenada realizada por la corrupción y la debilidad de las instituciones estatales han permitido que algunas empresas criminales desarrollen estados virtual o correspondiente. Estas zonas disputados o "temporal autónomos" introducen lo que el teórico John Robb llama "estados vacios" con áreas donde la legitimidad del estado está severamente desafiada. Estas zona frágiles, a veces sin ley (o enclaves criminal) cubre el territorio que se extiende de las vecindades individuales, a favelas o colonias, hasta ciudades enteras—tales como Ciudad Juárez—a grandes segmentos de terrón afueras en la provincia de Guatemala, Petén, y en zonas escasamente vigiladas de la Costa Atlántica de Nicaragua.

Como consecuencia, las Américas son cada vez mas sitiado por la violencia y la influencia corruptora de los actores criminales explotando territorios sin estado (enclaves criminales y los municipios dominados por la mafia) vinculado a la economí­a criminal global para construir musculo económico y, potencialmente, la fuerza polí­tica.

Plazas for Profit: Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency

by John P. Sullivan

Co-authored with Adam Elkus at 'Small Wars Journal,' 26 April 2009.

n August 2008, we published an essay in Small Wars Journal called "State of Siege: Mexico's Criminal... more n August 2008, we published an essay in Small Wars Journal called "State of Siege: Mexico's Criminal Insurgency." We were concerned at the lack of attention and policy discussion paid to the growing cartel violence in Mexico, which we called a "criminal insurgency." Now it is hard to escape discussion of Mexico's drug war. While we are heartened that security commentators are now focusing on Mexico, we feel that the "failed state" debate is at best a distraction that diverts discussion of the issue and a concrete discussion of the conflict's political-military dynamics would be more productive. We have updated our earlier assessment to include new events and trends in Mexico's criminal insurgency, and we will continue to periodically revise our assessment as the dynamics of the conflict evolve.

In broad scope, US policy should focus on helping Mexico rebuild the rule of law while hedging against cartel actions on the border. To do so, the US must engage both informal Mexican governing networks and help construct new cross-border partnerships that can act as policy shops for coordinating policy response and military/law enforcement cooperation against the cartels. At the same time, revamping of domestic security approaches also are needed to guard against overflow of drug war violence.

Fighting Fire with Fire? How (Not) to Neutralize an Insurgency

by Joseph Young

Darfur: Ground Zero for Africa’s Crises of Identity

by Patrick James Christian

A psycho-Historiography of Darfur's Tribes in Conflict
Nova Southeastern University Graduate School of Humanities & Social Science, Department of Conflict Analysis & Resolution

Introduction 2
Darfur: A Broken Place 3
Identity Disintegration in Darfur 5
Applying identity conflict theory 6
The Arabs 8
Arab Identity Subordination of Islam 9
Arab Hierarchical Ownership of the Islamic Ummah 10
Islamic Universality and the Fractured Identity of Arab Muslims 10
Islamic Universality of Ethnic Inclusion versus African Diffusion 12
The Africans 12
The Language of Religion and of Slaves 17
Islam and Paganism: the Sacred and the profane in Contest in Darfur 18
Law & Social Order: Sharia versus African Communal Justice 20
Psychological and Emotional Trauma as Spoilers to Identity Definition 22
“Intervention” Resolving Identity Conflict & Managing Psychological Trauma 24
Securing the Population 24
Stabilizing the Population 25
Rebuilding the Psycho-Sociological Structures of Human Societies 26
Conclusion 27
References 29
Notes 36

Diplomatic and peacekeeping initiatives by the international community in emerging cultures in conflict have failed to... more Diplomatic and peacekeeping initiatives by the international community in emerging cultures in conflict have failed to stem the violence and resolve the underlying conditions. Based primarily on political analysis, such initiatives do not address the underlying causes of the civil war at the individual, family, and tribal levels. This paper examines the psychological and sociological motivations for the violence within and between the Arab and African tribes of Darfur, to include motivation exploration of ethnic defections, failing cultural identity markers, and the effects of cognitive dissonance of the personal and social identities of the Darfur tribes. Research suggests that the identities of the African and Arab tribes are deeply contested over ethnicity, tribalism, religion, race and the generational memory that historical narratives provide. This fundamental identity conflict is overlaid by decades of violent physical, psychological and emotional assault upon the population. The result is a fundamental change of the psycho-sociology of tribal life and threatens disintegration and disestablishment of large group identity. The resulting societal and leadership breakdown of and within the tribes creates conditions of warlord-ism commonly found in ungoverned states such as Somalia. The paper concludes that the international community will ultimately fail unless measures are taken to create conditions for survival of the tribes physically, psychologically and sociologically.