Escalation and De-escalation of Irregular War: Some Observations and Conclusions

Abstract

The final contribution brings together the main findings of the individual articles, draws conclusions and formulates future research challenges in regards to understanding the escalation and de-escalation of irregular war.

Key Words:

• Escalation
• De-escalation
• Irregular War

Notes

¹M.L.R. Smith, ‘Escalation in Irregular War: Using Strategic Theory to Examine from First Principles', Journal of Strategic Studies 35/5 (Oct. 2012), 618.

²Isabelle Duyvesteyn, Clausewitz and African War: Politics and Strategy in Liberia and Somalia (London: Frank Cass 2005).

³Smith, ‘Escalation in Irregular War', 621.

⁴Ibid., 630.

⁵Ibid., 627.

⁶See also: Peter R. Neumann and M.L.R. Smith, The Strategy of Terrorism: How it Works, and Why it Fails (London: Routledge 2008).

⁷Smith, ‘Escalation in Irregular War', 633.

⁸John Stone, ‘Escalation and the War on Terror', Journal of Strategic Studies 35/5 (Oct. 2012), 649.

⁹Ibid., 643.

¹⁰Jan Angstrom and Jan Willem Honig, ‘Regaining Strategy: Small Powers, Strategic Culture, and Escalation in Afghanistan', Journal of Strategic Studies 35/5 (Oct. 2012), 670.

¹¹Donatella della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge UP 1995).

¹²Martha Crenshaw, ‘How Terrorism Declines’, Terrorism and Political Violence 3/1 (1991), 69–87.

¹³John Horgan, The Psychology of Terrorism (London: Frank Cass 2005). See also: Max Abrahms, ‘What Terrorists Really Want’, International Security 32/4 (2008), 78–105.

¹⁴David Betz, ‘Cyberpower in Strategic Affairs: Neither Unthinkable nor Blessed', Journal of Strategic Studies 35/5 (Oct. 2012), 697.

¹⁵Stone, ‘Escalation and the War on Terror', 655.

¹⁶Lawrence Freedman, The Transformation of Strategic Affairs, Adelphi Paper 379 (London: Routledge for IISS 2006).

¹⁷Joseph Nye, ‘Politics in an information age is not only about whose military wins but whose story wins’, Boston Review, Feb./March 2005.