Insurgency

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An insurgency is an organized rebellion that engages in deliberate actions to cause the downfall of a governmental authority, through destruction and armed actions. Template:Ref This can include a range of behavior, but primarily focuses on armed activities of irregular forces that rise up against an established authority, a government, an administration, or a belligerent military occupation. Those carrying out an insurgency are "insurgents". Insurgents engage in regular or guerrilla combat against the armed forces of the established regime, such as conducting sabotage and harassment. Insurgents are in opposition to a civil authority or government primarily in order to overthrow or obtain a share in government, to further a separatist or revolutionary agenda, or improve their condition.

Contents 1 Tactics and strategies 2 Political discourse and the mass media 3 References 4 See also

Tactics and strategies

Insurgent tactics and strategies vary widely, as well as the type of targets insurgents attack. Raids are amongst most common actions taken by insurgent in a dominated state of province. In addition, insurgents establish ties with other outlaws and double agents to further their goals. Some militants can also be sponsored by competing or enemy state governments. Some elements of an insurgency may use bombs, kidnappings, hostage-taking, hijackings, shootings and other types of violence to target the establishment's power structure and other facilities with little regard for civilian casualties. Other elements may only target their attacks on military objectives and avoid the targeting of civilians. Many times, insurgent groups conduct violent attacks but do not reveal the groups's identity or leader. Usually, an individual with iconic and symbolic status throughout the movement becomes it's principal leader against the governmental authority. Leaders of differing background from the insurgency movement itself may, at times, take over an insurgency.

Insurgents use a variety of asymmetrical warfare tactics, usually because of the insurgents force's capabilities are unequal to the authority's capabilities. Insurgents attacks against the authority may take the form of attacks on supply trains and security forces using hidden explosives. These explosive devices, at times made from military-grade materials, are concealed or camouflaged along transport routes and detonated when a supply transports and security forces come within distance. Insurgents frequently launch ambushes on military targets, with automatic and antitank weapons. Unarmored targets are commonly targeted. The congested and constricted terrain of the urban areas, and in the rural areas, offer cover and concealment for insurgents launching ambushes for a force multiplier by the insurgent force and as a force inhibitor against the targeted force. Such attacks are usually broken off before support or reinforcements can be called in.

Political discourse and the mass media

The term has built-in political connotations and requires much effort to use without taking a political position. It is most commonly used to describe a movement's unlawfulness by virtue of not being authorized by or in accordance with the law. When used by a state or an authority under threat, "insurgency" implies an illegitimacy of cause upon those rising up. Whereas those rising up will see the authority itself as being illegitimate. In cases of rebellions, the term insurgents refers to those who are not part of the decision-making entity that has the ability to make laws. For example, "the congress has the authority to pass laws to stop the insurgency" vs "the police have the power to arrest insurgents".

The term the "Iraqi insurgency", has been used by various politicians and the mainstream media in the western world to describe the conflict in post-invasion Iraq, 2003–2005, first as the conflict involving forces fighting against the multinational coalition force's occupying Iraq and since the UN Security Council Resolution 1546, the ongoing conflict agaist the new Iraqi Government and the coalition forces supporting that government.

References

• Template:Note "insurgency", WordNet Search - 2.1; Cognitive Science Laboratory, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ), 2005.

See also

Against insurgencies

• Counter insurgency -- the combating of insurgency, by the government (or allies) of the territory in which the insurgency takes place. It therefore falls somewhere between ordinary policing, on the one hand, and conventional warfare on the other.

Compare and contrast

• Resistance -- an underground organisation of a conquered or nearly conquered country engaging in sabotage and secret operations against occupation forces and collaborators.
• Rebel -- person active in rebellion, such as members of paramilitary forces.
• Freedom fighter -- those engaged in rebellion against an established government.
• Guerrilla warfare -- form of warfare whose objective is usually to destabilize an authority through long, low-intensity confrontation.
• Members of uprisings:
  • subversives (intent to overthrow or undermine an established government),
  • insurrectionists (armed rebels against the constituted authority),
  • mutineers (rebels within the authority's military that refuse to obey orders),
  • partisans (group of citizens organized to provide paramilitary service),
  • militants (violent actors who do not belong to an established military).

Ongoing insurgencies

• Iraqi insurgency -- the armed campaign being waged by various irregular forces, both Iraqi and external in origin, against the multinational force and the new Iraqi government.
• Kashmiri insurgency -- a campaign of terrorism and militancy by all sides of the conflict.ko:무장 투쟁