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The Concept of Subversion and Insurgency

The document discusses concepts of insurgency and subversion. It defines insurgency as using irregular military and political organizations to control an area's resources and weaken government control. Insurgencies typically progress through stages from pre-insurgency to guerilla warfare. Subversion aims to overthrow a government through unconstitutional means and undermine loyalty, allegiance, and morals. Subversive activities can be internal or external and utilize agitation, propaganda, fronts, and infiltration to achieve objectives like control and destruction.

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Marjo Ocon
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51 views

The Concept of Subversion and Insurgency

The document discusses concepts of insurgency and subversion. It defines insurgency as using irregular military and political organizations to control an area's resources and weaken government control. Insurgencies typically progress through stages from pre-insurgency to guerilla warfare. Subversion aims to overthrow a government through unconstitutional means and undermine loyalty, allegiance, and morals. Subversive activities can be internal or external and utilize agitation, propaganda, fronts, and infiltration to achieve objectives like control and destruction.

Uploaded by

Marjo Ocon
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE CONCEPT OF SUBVERSION AND INSURGENCY

INSURGENCY

INSURGENCY is a protracted political-military activity directed toward


completely or partially controlling the resources of a country through the use of
irregular military forces and illegal Political organizations.

Insurgent Activity – including guerilla warfare, terrorism, and political


mobilization, for examples propaganda, recruitment, front and covert party
organization, and international activity – is designed to weaken government control
and legitimacy while increasing insurgent control and legitimacy. The common
denominator of most insurgent groups is their desire to control a particular area. This
objective differentiates insurgent groups from purely terrorist organizations, whose
objectives do not include the creation of an alternative government capable of
controlling a given area or country.

Most insurgent groups have the same intermediate objectives designed to help
them achieve eventual domination of a country. Although both military and political
means are used to achieve these intermediate objectives, the objectives themselves
are essentially political.

1. Limit the ability of the government and enhance the capability of the
insurgents to provide public services.
2. Obtain the support or neutrality of critical segments of the population.
3. Isolate the government from international diplomatic and material
support and increase international.
4. Increase domestic and international legitimacy of the insurgent
organization at the expense of the government.
5. Destroy the self-confidence of government leaders and cadres, causing
their abdication or withdrawal.
6. Reduce and if possible neutralize government coercive power while
strengthening insurgent coercive capabilities.

Successful insurgencies usually pass through certain common stages of


development. Not all insurgencies, however, experience every stage; the sequence
may not be the same in all cases; and the evolution of any stage may extend over a
long period of time. An Insurgency may take decades to starts mature and finally
succeed. The stages of an insurgency are:

1. PRE-INSURGENCY – leadership emerges in response to domestic grievances or


outside influence. Government response is minimal.
2. ORGANIZATIONAL – Infrastructure built, guerillas recruited and trained, supplied,
acquired and domestic and international support sought. Government response
is the creation of a counter-insurgency organization.
3. GUERILLA WARFARE – Hit-and-run tactics used to attack government. Extensive
insurgent political activity – both domestic and international – may also occur
simultaneously during this stage.

Government Response – Low-level military action initiated. Political, social


and economic reforms; civic action programs; psychological operations and
amnesty programs may also be initiated to counteract the insurgents’ political
activities.

4. MOBILE CONVENTIONAL WARFARE – Larger units used in conventional


warfare mode. Many insurgencies never reach this stage.

Government response – Conventional military operations implemented.

Insurgencies generally fall into one of the four broad categories:

1. Politically organized
2. Military organized
3. Traditionally organized
4. Urban Insurgency

Some insurgencies have characteristics of more than one type. The defining
quality of each category is the group’s organizational strategy. Differences in
organizational approach, in turn produces differences in the military and political
strategies employed by the insurgents at the international, national, provincial and
village levels of conflicts.

The concept incipient insurgency which encompasses the pre-insurgency and


organizational stages of an insurgent conflict – refers to situations ranging from those
in which subversive activity by an inchoate insurgent group is but a potential threat to
which anti- government incident occur frequently and display organization and
forethought. Yet not all incipient insurgencies pose a serious challenge to a
government determining which evolving insurgencies constitute a serious threat
involves evaluating a range of sign associated with development of an insurgency.

A revolutionary group seeing to mount an insurgency must at a minimum build


an organization, recruit and train people, acquire supplies and broadcast beliefs and
goals. It may also choose to incite riots or work stoppages, infiltrate the legitimate
political apparatus and engage in terrorism – the more numerous the signs that a
group in engaging in these activities and he greater the magnitude of each sign, the
more serious the threat.
The signs associated with the development of an insurgency fall within the
following six categories:

1. Organization and recruitment


2. Training
3. Acquiring resources
4. Outside support
5. Popular support
6. Actions/use of violence

The ability to measure or assess who has control over an area and is population
the insurgents or the government – is an important element in an insurgency or
counter-insurgency effort. Who has control is determined not merely by those has
more guns and firepower, but primarily by who has more sympathizers – informers,
food suppliers, messengers and taxpayers and committed supporters – cadres,
soldiers, tax collectors and risk takers. Support of the people is vital to the survival of
the insurgents who depend on them for food, shelter, recruits and intelligence. The
government’s challenge is to regain the allegiance of the population already alienated
by government failures to address basic grievances. Poor peasants and farmers are
however, seldom motivated by abstractions or vague promises. Their willingness to
provide support hinges on concrete incentives material benefits or demonstrable
threats.

Three factors – attitudes organizations and security – are critical to


establishing control.

1. Attitudes – Neither the government nor the insurgents can control an


area without the sympathetic. Support on part of the local population, including at least
a small core of individuals willing to undertake risks.

2. Organization – The organizational capabilities – exhibited by each side


at the local level are vital to mobilizing and utilizing local resources, orchestrating
propaganda activities, and ensuring the effectiveness of local security force.

3. Security – It is essential that each side be capable of protecting its local


political apparatus, cadres and supporters from enemy forces and assassins. Failure to
perform this function is usually accompanied by a breakdown in morale and discipline
and occasionally by a complete collapse of one’s entire organization.

Late-stage Indicators of Successful Insurgencies

An analysis of historical cases indicates that a common pattern of behavior and


events characterizes the defeat of a government battling an insurgency. This pattern
comprises four categories of developments:

1. Progressive withdrawal of domestic support for the government


2. Progressive withdrawal of international support for the government
3. Progressive loss of government control over population and territory
4. Progressive loss of government coercive power

SUBVERSION
- is an act to overthrow from the foundation to cause other ruin and destruction
to destroy, upset, pervert or corrupt by undermining morals, allegiance or faith.
- an activity carried out by individuals or group of individuals seek to alter the
form of government thru unconstitutional means or which serves the interest of a
foreign government in a way inimical to that country.

OBJECTIVE:
a. demoralize
b. control
c. destruction
d. dissension
e. total seizure
f. capture

TYPES:

Internal – an insidious attack on the institution of the state from within culminating at
time to an armed revolt.
External – subversive action from without which uses diplomatic, economic and
cultural weapons

WEAPONS FOR SUBVERSION

1. Agitation – it is concerned with the stimulating of people’s ideas and


activities and activities which will serves the communist cause.
2. Propaganda – deceptive or distorted ideas or doctrines used in a systematic
attempt to move a group to action in order to achieve a goal.
3. Fronts – these could be national, popular, liberation, etc. Organization whose
ultimate intension is to destroy those who have been made its tools.
4. Infiltration – these enables small united disciplined minority groups to
dominate for more numerous assemblies of people bound by
1. There must exist an exploitable issue.
2. Agitation/propaganda efforts must be evident.
3. Subversive efforts must be well planned and directed following certain
specific theories.

TWO LEVELS OF SUBVERSION

1. Above ground- pursued along the lines of legal


2. Underground – pursued outside limits of the existing laws

3 MAJOR ASPECTS OF SUBVERSION

1. Organizational – recruitment of cadres and information of auxiliary units, front


organization and other allied groups to facilitate activities among target groups.
2. Education – this involves training and indoctrination of new recruits projected
to
3. Military

UNDERGROUND ACTIVITIES

1. Infiltration of legitimate front


2. Recruitment and training of cadres

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