Violence in context: Mapping the strategies and operational art of irregular warfare

ABSTRACT

The malaise that the United States, and the West, have experienced in recent campaigns stems in large part from unclear thinking about war, its political essence, and the strategies needed to join the two. Instead, analysis and response are predicated on entrenched theoretical concepts with limited practical utility. The inadequacy of understanding has spawned new, and not so new, terms to capture unanticipated trends, starting with the re-discovery of “insurgency” and “counterinsurgency” and leading to discussion of “hybrid threats” and “gray-zone” operations. New terminology can help, but the change must go deeper. Challenging analytical orthodoxy, this article sets out a unifying approach for the study of political violence, or more accurately: violent politics. It provides a conceptual foundation that helps to make sense of recent shifts in warfare. In effect, it offers sorely needed theoretical insights into the nature of strategy and guides the process of responding to nontraditional threats.

KEYWORDS:

• Strategy
• counterinsurgency
• terrorism
• hybrid
• gray zone

Acknowledgements

The framework presented in this article is drawn from the life work of Thomas A. Marks, who bases his scholarship on an aggregation of the people’s war approach used by the American Patriots and the Asian theorists, notably Mao Tse-tung. It is a framework that has been tested and further refined through its use by senior-level international military and civilian students of the Combatting Terrorism Fellowship Program at the College of International Security Affairs (CISA), National Defense University (NDU). The authors are grateful for the opportunity to work with and learn from these individuals. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors alone and do not represent the U.S. government, the Department of Defense, or the National Defense University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

David H. Ucko is the Director of the Combatting Terrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP) and an Associate Professor at the College of International Security Affairs (CISA) of the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, DC.

Thomas A. Marks is Distinguished Professor and the MG Edward Lansdale Chair of Irregular Warfighting Strategy at the College of International Security Affairs (CISA) of the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, DC.