Despite being outnumbered, underfunded, and militarily weaker than the state-backed armed forces they challenge, insurgents have continually mounted long-term challenges. To that end, the puzzle on which many conflict scholars have focused their efforts is that of insurgent war duration. The theory posited in this dissertation claims the capacity of insurgents to survive wartime is a function of choices made before large-scale dyadic conflict erupted––or during a time period I call incubation. Using qualitative case studies of Latin American insurgencies such as Sendero Luminoso and the FMLN, I demonstrate the capacity to endure conflict long-term was a direct correlate of both type and length of their prewar preparation. Incubation was used to set up processes for recruitment, procuring resources from durable networks, and coordinating personnel. After controlling for standard explanations, I also offer statistical evidence that insurgent incubation duration is statistically significant and positively related to conflict duration. The theory and empirical evidence presented here provides a new approach for explaining insurgent war duration. / Political Science

This dissertation examines the latter stages of the Second Indochina War through the lens of geography, spatial contestation, and the environment. The natural and the manmade world were not only central but a decisive factor in the struggle to control the population and territory of South Vietnam. The war was shaped and in many ways determined by spatial / environmental factors. Like other revolutionary civil conflicts, the key to winning political power in South Vietnam was to control both the physical world (territory, population, resources) and the ideational world (the political organization of occupied territory). The means to do so was insurgency and pacification - two approaches that pursued the same goals (population and territory control) and used the same methods (a blend of military force, political violence, and socioeconomic policy) despite their countervailing purposes. The war in South Vietnam, like all armed conflicts, possessed a unique spatiality due to its irregular nature. Although it has often been called a "war without fronts," the reality is that the conflict in South Vietnam was a war with innumerable fronts, as insurgents and counterinsurgents feverishly wrestled to win political power and control of the civilian environment throughout forty-four provinces, 250 districts, and more than 11,000 hamlets. The conflict in South Vietnam was not one geographical war, but many; it was a highly complex politico-military struggle that fragmented space and atomized the battlefield along a million divergent points of conflict. This paper explores the unique spatiality of the Second Indochina War and examines the ways that both sides of the conflict conceptualized and utilized geography and the environment to serve strategic, tactical, and political purposes. / History

By 2001, the al-Qaida movement had evolved into a transnational revolutionary movement with an eschatological dimension, facilitating the 9/11 attacks to gain religious support and incite a strong reaction. The Bush administration was particularly tough in its response, terminating the Taliban regime and then declaring the right of pre-emption against a wider axis of evil, which led on to regime termination in Iraq and the intended constraining of Iran. In the event, regime termination in Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in protracted wars that were intensely costly in human and resource terms, and Iranian influence actually increased. The al-Qaida movement was dispersed while being transformed into a potent idea with little in the way of an organised structure, yet was effective in catalysing movements from South Asia through the Middle East to sub-Saharan Africa. Analyses of events in Iraq and Afghanistan point to deep misconceptions over the potential for the use of military force and of imposed state building. After more than a decade after 9/11, there has been a re-orientation away from large-scale occupations towards more remote means of maintaining control, with an emphasis on armed drones, special forces and privatised military companies. This approach appears initially appropriate and attractive but may be as counterproductive as the previous approach.

No / The management and incorporation of ethnic identities in Pakistan has historically been far more problematic in Balochistan than other provinces and regions. With the killing in 2006 of Akbar Bugti, a leading political figure who was the head of the Bugti tribe and served as federal minister, chief minister and Governor of Balochistan, the province became politically polarised and has descended into a new cycle of bombings, abductions and murders. The rebellion has resulted in a major security operation pitting the security forces against the Baloch people, attacks against Punjabi settlers and sectarian violence against Hazara Shias that collectively threaten to derail major development projects and increase instability in Pakistan as a whole at a critical juncture. This article examines the insurgency in Balochistan and evaluates various perspectives that have been used to explain the present crisis: external intervention, resistance to social change, resource driven conflict theory, transnationalism and diaspora, and failure to manage difference. After examining the evidence it concludes by arguing that the primary cause for the insurgency in Pakistan is due to poor management of difference.

Between 1991 and 2000, Sierra Leone experienced massive state and economic decline amidst a brutal civil war. In a country that is minerally wealthy, but ruled by a corrupt and predatory government, a `revolutionary¿ movement known as the RUF emerged, terrorising the civilian population and profiting from the unsecured diamond industry. The classic causes given for Sierra Leone¿s state collapse and consequent civil war have in large centred around the adverse effects of colonialism, civil unrest due to rampant governmental kleptocracy, and regional conflict spillover. However, the multiplicity of actors in Sierra Leone and the complexity of the environment demonstrate that the ten year civil war revolved predominantly around the country¿s highly lucrative diamonds. Indoctrinated in Qadafi¿s Libya and trained by Taylor¿s NPFL rebels in Liberia, the RUF insurgency created links through Charles Taylor to international criminals such as weapon¿s dealer Victor Bout, and international terrorists including al Qaeda. In just a few years Sierra Leone attained the dubious distinction of being one of the most globalised informal and illegal economies in the world. To the backdrop of Sierra Leone¿s collapsed state, economic vacuum and brutal civil war, and within the context of contemporary economic globalisation and an international `War on Terror¿, this paper discusses the local, regional and international levels of economic exploitation throughout the wartime period, and highlights how informal economies are inherently prone to large scale criminal predation.

In the 21st Century, violent non-state actors continue to pose an asymmetric threat to state actors. Given the increasing proliferation of lethal technologies, growing global social connectivity, and continued occurrences of failed or failing states, the quantity of violent non-state actors posing threats in global hotspots is likely to increase. The United States, already facing strategic overreach due to conflicts in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, will face enormous difficulties in engaging militarily against a multitude of violent non-state actors. Smart power, a selective employment of hard and soft power applications, presents an opportunity to limit and deter violent non-state actors in a resource-constrained environment. Smart power, previously viewed through a largely state-on-state lens must be looked at through the paradigm of containing and engaging violent non-state actors. / Master of Arts / Modern nation-states must contend with an asymmetric threat from violent nonstate actors. In this thesis, an asymmetric threat is viewed as a threat in which the conventionally weaker opponent gains an undue advantage given their commensurate strength. Violent non-state actors are defined in this thesis as non-state armed groups that resort to organized violence as a tool to achieve their goals. Given the increasing proliferation of lethal technologies, growing global social connectivity, and continued occurrences of failed or failing states, the quantity of violent non-state actors posing threats in global hotspots is likely to increase. The United States, already facing strategic overreach due to conflicts in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, will face enormous difficulties in engaging militarily against a multitude of violent non-state actors. Smart power, the employment of a variety of power applications [i.e. air strikes, coalition building, diplomacy, foreign aid, etc.], presents an opportunity to limit and deter violent non-state actors in a resource-constrained environment. Smart power, previously viewed through a largely state-on-state lens must be looked at through the paradigm of containing and engaging violent non-state actors.

This thesis attempts to prove the significance of the relationship between the United States and Australia, and how their similar cultures and experiences assisted creating that shared bond throughout the twentieth century. Chapter 2 examines the effects of the Cold War on both the United States and Australia, as well as their growing relationship during that period. There is some backtracking chronologically in order to make connections to important historical legacies such as the ANZAC Legend and settlement on the periphery of their respective societies. Then the first half of chapter 3 delves into the Vietnam War by examining the interactions of the American support unit, the 11th Combat Aviation Battalion, a helicopter unit that includes transports and gunships. Afterwards, the latter half of chapter 3 examines the Australians' after-action reports to better understand their tactical and operational methods. Finally, chapter 4 provides an overview of Australian and American interactions between the advisers and the Vietnamese, as well as their attitudes towards the end of the war and the withdrawal from Vietnam. The conclusion summarizes the significance of the thesis by reemphasizing the significance of US-Australian interactions in the twentieth century and the importance of continued studies on this topic between US and Australian historians.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / After defeating the Iraqi military, Coalition Forces spread out across Iraq to stabilize and transition control of the country back to Iraqis. This historical analysis of Mosul, Ramadi, and Samarra studies military operations intended to stabilize these three cities from April 2003 to September 2005. Prior to and after the reestablishment of Iraqi sovereignty, Coalition Forces worked with Iraqi citizens at the local level to reestablish control of the population. In order to achieve this, the counterinsurgent force must understand that when consensus for non-violent political opposition does not exist within the governed populace, coercive measures must be taken to enforce local security. This analysis evaluates the effects of military operations over time and through frequent unit transitions with varying numbers of U.S. and Iraqi security forces. The conclusions gleaned from this analysis are summarized as unit approaches that either achieved control or failed to achieve control at the local level. This study suggests that a distributed lightto- medium equipped ground force operating within urban centers and in continuous close proximity to the population is best able to establish local control and partner with local police and military forces. This force should be enabled with language and cultural skills. Necessary combat multipliers include human intelligence collectors and social network analysts. / Major, United States Army

Thesis (Master of Military Studies)-Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 2008. / Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Feb 11, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

The hypothesis that language discrimination contributes to protest and/or rebellion is tested. Constitutional language policy regarding administrative/judicial, educational and other matters is measured on three separate scales developed for this study; the status of each minority group's language under its country's policy is measured by another set of scales. Protest and rebellion variables are taken from Gurr's Minorities at Risk study. Findings include an indication that group language status contributes positively to protest and rebellion until a language attains moderate recognition by the government, at which point status develops a negative relationship with protest and rebellion, and an indication that countries with wider internal variations in their treatment of language groups experience higher levels of protest and rebellion on the part of minority groups.