Protracted Intense Struggles

Abstract

This chapter examines how, in the strategy of programmatic coordination, the tactic of increasing intensity, such as a protracted violent struggle, requires high levels of programmatic coordination but is in turn chosen to sustain this and achieve still greater coordination within the platform population. Using an original dataset on violent insurgency, terrorism, and protest by the 171 national-secession campaigns that got on the global agenda, the results of statistical analysis are consistent with the expectation that campaigns on behalf of more authentic and realistic programs are more likely to engage in protracted intense struggles.