Insurgency in Iraq: A Historical Perspective
Abstract
Guerrilla warfare in one form or another was certainly the most prevalent type of conflict in the 20th century, if not before. For instance, British soldiers died on active service somewhere in the world in every year between 1945 and 1997, with the exception of 1968. Yet, the conventional warfighting experience was continued to 35 months of the Korean War, 10 days at Suez in 1956, 25 days of the land campaign of the Falklands in 1982, and 100 hours of land operations in the Gulf in 1991: everything else was some kind of low intensity conflict. Much the same was true of other major armies. The continuing proliferation of insurgent organizations suggests that insurgency is still widely perceived as an effective means either of achieving power and influence, or of bringing a cause to the notice of an international or national community. The end of European decolonization and the collapse of the Soviet Union together removed the motivational impulse for much conflict between the late 1940s and the late 1980s. However, arguably new ideological, political, and commercial imperatives are now encouraging intrastate conflict and insurgency amid the breakdown of the international bipolar political system and the emergence of identity politics and of many more nonstate actors. Indeed, between 1990 and 1996 alone, there were at least 98 conflicts worldwide, but only 7 of these were waged between recognized states. Various instances of contemporary insurgency have been categorized by different analysts in such terms as apolitical, primordial, traditionalist, pluralist, reformist, spiritual, separatist, and economic. Certainly Islamic fundamentalism, which might be regarded more as an ideology than an expressly religious conviction, has emerged as a new imperative behind insurgency.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA430203
Entities
People
- Ian F. Beckett
Organizations
- United States Army War College