Africa Conceptualization of IW Study

About the Authors

Dr. Sandor Fabian (Morgan 6 Contractor) is a former Hungarian Special Forces officer with 20 years of military experience. Dr. Fabian served in multiple national assignments, including the senior Special Forces desk officer and advisor to the Hungarian Chief of Defense, and held the Force Assessment and Evaluation Branch Head position at the NATO Special Operations Headquarters (now Allied Special Operations Command).

Dr. Fabian is currently an instructor and curriculum developer supporting the NATO Special Operations education, training, exercises, and evaluation efforts. Dr. Fabian is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Central Florida, where he teaches intelligence and international relations classes.

Dr. Fabian is a graduate of the Hungarian Miklos Zrinyi National Defense University, holds a Master’s degree in Defense Analysis from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, a graduate certificate in U.S. Intelligence Studies and a Ph.D. in Security Studies both from the University of Central Florida. Dr. Fabian’s additional training and education includes the U.S. Marine Corps Basic Officer course, Infantry Officer course, Expeditionary Warfare School and several courses at the U.S. Joint Special Operations University and the NATO Special Operations School.

Dr. Fabian is the author of the book titled “Irregular Warfare: The Future Military Strategy For Small States” and published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the International Studies Quarterly, the Strategic Security Journal, the Defense and Security Analysis Journal, the Special Operations Journal, the Combating Terrorism Exchange Journal, the British Defence Studies journal and the Hungarian Sereg Szemle and Honvedsegi Szemle journals. Dr. Fabian has also contributed several articles at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Small Wars Journal, and the British Royal United Service Institute. Dr. Fabian’s research interest includes irregular warfare, Russian and Chinese approaches to conflict, U.S. foreign security assistance and special operations.

Dr. Fabian is currently the Deputy Regional Advisor for Europe and Africa at the Irregular Warfare Center. As Deputy Regional Advisor, Dr. Fabian has led engagements with partners and allies across the region, drafted the Center’s strategy for the Europe and Africa region, and is the lead author of this study.

Matthew Heidel (Valens Global Contractor) is an analyst at the Irregular Warfare Center focused on the African and European regions. In this role, he has conducted interviews and reviewed surveys on the international conceptualization of irregular warfare. Matthew also supports the Center’s engagements in Europe and Africa. Prior to joining the Irregular Warfare Center, Matthew helped develop immersive wargames for academic, civil society, and government audiences at Valens Global. Matthew holds a B.A. in Government from the College of William & Mary.

Preface

This study is the third in a series of volumes in which the Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) explores the commonalities and differences of the conceptualization of irregular warfare across U.S. allied and partner stakeholders in regions important for U.S. national security. This volume focuses on the African region and is based on surveys and semi-structured interviews with five defense thought leaders drawn from across the continent.

The African continent is the world’s second-largest by land area and population.[1] The continent boasts significant linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity, making generalized conclusions difficult. According to UN projections, by 2050, 25% of the world’s population will be in Africa.[2] Parts of the continent boast significant natural resources, including critical minerals and rare earth elements necessary for sensitive defense production, uranium, precious metals, and significant hydrocarbon deposits. The region also impacts critical shipping lanes, including along the Horn of Africa, which connect Europe to Asia. Violent Extremist Groups (VEOs), including ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliates, threaten lives and livelihoods across multiple parts of the continent. Both the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation are exploiting economic and security ties across the continent, often while extracting payment through interests in natural resources. Despite these significant security interests, the African continent has not consistently ranked at the top of U.S. security priorities.

The current United States National Security Strategy (NSS) identifies the region as “central to addressing complex global problems” and that regional problems require “African-led efforts” to find solutions to these problems, a theme that will likely continue into forthcoming NSSs.[3] Supporting African-led solutions requires that the U.S. national security enterprise can understand Africa’s security challenges from a non-Western perspective and can communicate in a common lexicon.

The IWC has compiled this study series to understand commonalities and differences in the conceptualization of irregular warfare (IW) across U.S. allies and partners. Understanding different conceptualizations of IW is critical for the United States to better support allies and partners to build resilience to common IW challenges.

This study is based on IWC-generated formal surveys and semi-structured interviews from academic institutions or ministries of defense. The participants were drawn from the Angolan Institute for Higher Military Education; the Kenyan Counter Insurgency, Terrorism, and Stability Operations Organization; the Liberian Ministry of National Defense; the National Defence College of Nigeria; and the Zambian Defence Services, Command and Staff College.

Executive Summary

To maintain critical competencies and to develop new capabilities in IW, continued and wide-ranging study of the concept must remain a high priority. With a focus on the African region, this study is the third in a series of volumes exploring the commonalities and differences in ideas related to IW across U.S. allies and partners. Identifying baseline knowledge on the understanding of IW-related thought in allied and partner academic and professional military educational institutions and exploring areas of potential cooperation on issues relevant to IW is critical to U.S. national security interests.

While this study finds that there is not a unified African conceptualization of IW, most African conceptualizations of IW are focused on unconventional warfare techniques implemented by violent non-state actors. Representatives of institutions surveyed as part of this study were all willing to offer a definition of IW and had a familiarity with the term. Most often, IW was seen primarily or exclusively through a counterinsurgency (COIN) or counter-terrorism (CT) lens. Like in the second study of this series (Indo-Pacific region), survey and interview responses showed a strong relationship between IW tactics and violence, with multiple participants expressing skepticism that IW was possible without some level of violence. Every proposed conceptualization of IW has a nexus to violent non-state actors and many participants were either skeptical of state-on-state IW or did not consider it in their responses.

Many of the surveyed institutions’ understanding of IW is informed by their unique national history or regionally specific threats. When asked to identify primary current IW threats facing their respective countries, religiously motivated extremist organizations were the most commonly listed threat actors. Several respondents listed regionally unique IW threats that have not previously appeared in this study series, such as cattle rustling, illegal timber mining, maritime piracy, and banditry. Additionally, understanding of IW by surveyed individuals was informed by their country’s experience during decolonization when some pro-independence movements used IW techniques.

Acknowledgements

IWC would like to express its appreciation to all who contributed to the successful completion of this study. The Center is grateful for the support of U.S. embassy staff and the U.S. Defense Attachés stationed in Angola, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Zambia. Our greatest gratitude goes out to Lieutenant General Miguel Junior of the Angolan Institute for Higher Military Education; Major Martin Kasinga from the Kenyan Counter Insurgency, Terrorism, and Stability Operations Organization; Assistant Minister Charleson of the Liberian Ministry of National Defense; Brigadier General Olurotimi Adejoro of the National Defence College of Nigeria; and Brigadier General Phil Samatamba of the Zambian Defence Services, Command and Staff College for their support of this project.