Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies
National Styles and Strategic Cultures

A study of the evolving 'national styles' of conducting insurgencies and counter-insurgency, as influenced by transnational trends, ideas and practices.

Beatrice Heuser (Edited by), Eitan Shamir (Edited by)

9781107135048, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 January 2017

396 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.4 cm, 0.66 kg

'… clearly written with a purpose in mind … should be on the reading list for anyone seeking broad historical context to the study of insurgencies.' Thomas McDermott, The Strategy Bridge

This book is a major new study of the extent to which national mentalities, or 'ways of war', are responsible for 'national styles' of insurgency and counterinsurgency. Leading scholars examine the ways of war of particular insurgent movements, and the standard operational procedures of states and occupation forces to suppress them. Through case studies ranging from British, American and French counterinsurgency to the IRA and the Taliban, they show how 'national styles' evolve, influenced by transnational trends, ideas and practices. They examine whether we can identify a tendency to resort to a particular pattern of fighting and, if so, whether this is dictated by constants such as geography and climate, or by the available options, or else whether there exists a particular 'strategic culture' or 'national style'. Their findings show that 'national style' is not eternal but can undergo fundamental transformations.

1. Introduction: national style and strategic culture Beatrice Heuser and Jeannie Johnson
Part I. Coin Strategies: 2. True to form? Questioning British counterinsurgency tradition Robert Egnell and David Ucko
3. French counterinsurgency in the era of the Algerian Wars, 1830–1962 Jacques Frémeaux and Bruno Reis
4. Russian counterinsurgency in perspective Stephen Blank
5. Crackdown: insurgency, potential insurgency and counterinsurgency in modern China Yitzhak Shichor
6. You go to COIN with the military you have: the United States and 250 years of irregular war David E. Johnson
7. From fighting 'francs-tireurs' to genocide: German counterinsurgency in the Second World War Henning Pieper
8. Israel's counterinsurgency experience Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shamir
Part II. Insurgency Strategies: 9. National liberation, Algerian style? Jacques Frémeaux
10. Irish Republican insurgency and terrorism, 1969–2007 Jim Storr
11. The evolution of Palestinian resistance Carmit Valensi
12. The Taliban Rob Johnson
Part III. Interaction: 13. Guerrilla and counter-guerrilla Greece: tradition and change Spyridon Plakoudas
14. Syria: insurrection and suppression 2011–13 Eyal Zisser
15. Beyond national styles: towards a connected history of Cold War counterinsurgency Elie Tenenbaum
16. Universal toolbox, national styles, or divergence of civilisations? Beatrice Heuser and Eitan Shamir
Index.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Military history [HBW]