{"title":"Chinese war in Southeast Asia’s Frontier: contesting Kokang’s Chinese identity on Myanmar-China Border conflict","authors":"Danny Widiatmo, Abellia Anggi Wardani","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2247518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2247518","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Kokang is an ethnic minority group that settled along the Myanmar-China borderland with dual identity as it has long historical ties of nationalism and patronage with various political factions in China while located outside China’s border. This article explores how Kokang’s Ethnic Revolutionary Organization (ERO), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and their leaders construct Kokang’s identity to their benefit. Based on desk research method, the article found that Kokang’s dual identity allows them to self-categorize themselves as Chinese or separate-independent ethnic minorities in Myanmar while setting ethnic boundaries with various political entities to protect their interest.","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"1363 - 1381"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47758092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Parmanu: the story of Pokhran (2018)- the saffronization of India’s quest for a nuclear weapon","authors":"C. C. Fair","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2242624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2242624","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"73 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85203612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The challenges of military adaptation to the cyber domain: a case study of the Netherlands","authors":"M. Smeets","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2233159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2233159","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Whilst NATO speaks increasingly publicly about the military use of cyber operations, adaptation to the cyber domain has reportedly been challenging for most militaries. Little research has sought to understand the nature of these challenges. This study seeks to address this gap through a case study of the Netherlands. By utilizing a range of primary and secondary sources, this article reveals that the Dutch Defense Cyber Command has faced significant constraints in its adaptation to the cyber domain, primarily due to issues related to organizational structure, operational mandate, and the availability of skills and resources. A cyber command that lacks regular opportunities for day-to-day operations and where personnel may not have continuous learning opportunities to acquire and refine their skills will encounter difficulties in recruiting, training, and retaining a proficient workforce. These findings highlight the tendency of observers to mistakenly equate the mere establishment of a cyber command with the existence of a robust military cyber capability – namely, the ability to effectively carry out and sustain a range of cyber operations for tactical or strategic purposes.","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"1343 - 1362"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47850394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Counterinsurgency as order-making: refining the concepts of insurgency and counterinsurgency in light of the Somali civil war","authors":"M. Skjelderup, Mukhtar Ainashe","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2231203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2231203","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this paper, we argue that the current insurgency and counterinsurgency discourse is dominated by concepts that are too narrow and too isolated from the wider civil war literature within which insurgency and counterinsurgency occur. Rather than accounting for the complex political processes and wide range of forces and actors that shape conflict dynamics, the dominant insurgency and counterinsurgency debate tends to reduce highly messy contexts to a competition between the often false dichotomy of insurgents and counterinsurgents, usually understood as the state versus one or more non-state violent actors. In order to understand civil war contexts like South-Central Somalia, we argue that orthodox reductionist concepts and assumptions underpinning the dominant insurgency and counterinsurgency discourse provide limited value. Building on recent critical literature, the paper proposes a refined conceptualization. Instead of understanding insurgency and counterinsurgency as peculiar forms of war, strategies, or sets of guerilla tactics, we follow Jaqueline Hazelton’s line of thought, suggesting that insurgency and counterinsurgency are mere elements of a broader process of violent order-making. Thus, insurgency and counterinsurgency are, in our view, comprehensive processes of organized challenge to and consolidation of established political order within the context of civil war.","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"1180 - 1203"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44278629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Guerrillas in our midst: Reflections on the British experience of counter-insurgency in popular fiction","authors":"G. Hughes","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2022.2067441","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2022.2067441","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Over the past two decades the historical record of Britain’s wars against a series of insurgencies has experienced a fundamental academic re-assessment, challenging established beliefs about how the British state and its institutions – in particular the British Army – have waged counterinsurgency, and questioning traditional presumptions that Britain fought its insurgent enemies according to a doctrine guided by ‘hearts and minds’ and ‘minimum force’. This article shows that hints about the murky reality behind the ‘British way in counterinsurgency’ can be seen in novels published during the post-war era, some of which used recent conflicts as their subject matter, others of which referred tangentially to previous wars. Not only were these best-selling books with an international audience, but these authors had experience with Britain’s armed forces and intelligence services, and were either directly involved in counterinsurgency conflicts, or their works indicated insight and knowledge about them. Their books provided fictional illustrations of many of the themes – coercive tactics against civilians, special operations against insurgents, inter-departmental disputes, the lack of cultural understanding, the maltreatment of detainees and the excessive use of force against suspected insurgents and civilians – that have been identified and examined by military historians and other academic specialists covering Britain and counterinsurgency.","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"896 - 918"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48711528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Insurgencies & organized crime: the essential elements of information","authors":"L. Cline","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2227408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2227408","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Operational analysis of irregular warfare typically focuses on politically-based actions (typically violent) against governments. Intelligence services very often base their planning, collection efforts, and analysis on opposing insurgent or terrorist groups, proxy forces, and governments that might be supporting them. A key threat to stability in these complex security environments – organized criminal activities – has rarely received similar attention. Using commonalities revealed by patterns of organized crime in multiple regions as a basis for essential elements of information can provide a template for more comprehensive intelligence support and more sophisticated operational strategies.","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"1072 - 1094"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47738761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring factors and implications of violence against civilians: a case study of the Soviet-Afghan war","authors":"Justin Magula","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2231198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2231198","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Soviet-Afghan War serves as a significant case study to understand why states resort to violent acts against civilians during war. This study takes a multidimensional approach, examining strategic, operational, and individual factors and applying theories of violence and mass killing. By analyzing the conditions that led the Soviets to target civilians, this investigation identifies a nexus of interconnected factors. At the strategic level, Soviet leaders pursued a swift victory to establish a Communist client regime while minimizing casualties and controlling information flow. Operationally, the ill-preparedness of the Red Army for counterinsurgency warfare, coupled with an entrenched organizational culture, led to the adoption of counterproductive enemy-centric tactics against Afghan noncombatants. Additionally, inadequate training, prolonged deployments, and a lack of disciplinary measures at the individual level contributed to the perpetration of violent acts. Understanding the underlying causes of violence against civilians, particularly in the context of Russian forces, holds practical importance. This knowledge can assist policymakers in devising strategies that mitigate wartime violence and enhance the protection of citizens. Drawing parallels to contemporary conflicts involving Russia, the study concludes by recommending future research directions and emphasizing the relevance of comprehending the targeting of noncombatants in ongoing conflicts, notably the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"1295 - 1321"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48290290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction","authors":"Paul B. Rich","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2229183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2229183","url":null,"abstract":"Cinema together with novels and short stories can provide valuable insights into war and military conflict. These include conflicts fought by insurgent movements and the various counter-insurgencies waged by states to resist, contain, and, on occasions, defeat them. Film and literature can be valuable aids in the teaching of unconventional or irregular wars and the examination of their wider public mythologies. Cinema is necessarily a great simplifier, often taking myths from stories, legends, and plays and transforming them into spectacles for popular audiences. Some of the major themes tackled by this war cinema derive from various military conflicts both ancient and modern: courage, heroism, and honour along with cowardice and incompetence; romance and the frequent breakdown of domestic relationships of some of those involved in military conflicts; the strategic rationale and competence of senior commanders and political leaders; the traumatic impact of warfare on those fighting in it and the frequently shabby treatment of veterans returning home. The theme explored in this short special issue is the myth of the warrior and soldier hero and its replacement in several films since the 1960s of antiwar images of the soldier as victim and aggressor. The shift is interesting for the way it has often occurred in films that are not situated in interstate wars and grand set piece battles, such as those of World Wars One and Two, but in messier and protracted smaller-scale conflicts such as the Anglo Boer War of 1899–1902, post-war British colonial ‘emergencies’, the Vietnam War and ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland. The four papers published here thus mark a useful addition to the scholarly study of cinema and irregular or unconventional war in contrast to the wider and better-known work on conventional war. Guerrilla Warfare has only recently begun to be examined by film studies analysts and cinema critics after a long period when it was largely subsumed within the wider rubric of war cinema. While there may be some rationale for this approach in terms of a tidiness of subject matter, those studying guerrilla","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"883 - 895"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41407202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The insurgent’s dilemma: A struggle to prevail","authors":"Nelson Kasfir","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2232674","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2232674","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"1040 - 1042"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43747094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Narco drones: tracing the evolution of cartel aerial tactics in Mexico’s low-intensity conflicts","authors":"Ghaleb Krame, Vlado Vivoda, A. Davies","doi":"10.1080/09592318.2023.2226382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2226382","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study examines the evolution of drone tactics employed by drug cartels in Mexico from 2017 to 2022. The research traces the increasing sophistication of drone technology, payload capacities, and adaptability of cartels in employing airborne drones in low-intensity conflicts It also highlights the increasing reliance on drones for various purposes. The analysis reveals insights into how criminal organizations adapt to the changing technological landscape, incorporating drones into their operations and creating new challenges for law enforcement. The analysis outlines strategies and identifies specialized measures to counteract this asymmetric warfare.","PeriodicalId":46215,"journal":{"name":"Small Wars and Insurgencies","volume":"34 1","pages":"1095 - 1129"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41879666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}