guerilla warfare

Sun Tzu’s injunction to “know your enemy” is never more critical than in counterinsurgency (COIN) warfare. During its COIN conflicts in the last hundred years, the United States military has fallen especially prey to the thinking trap of lumping all its opponents into the same category. COIN expert David Kilcullen identified this phenomenon as “accidental guerrilla syndrome” in his 2009 book of the same name.

Guerilla warfare is not an “Eastern Way of War,” it is the universal war of the weak.

The Russian Federal forces enjoyed overwhelming superiority, yet were forced into a premature cease-fire in 1996 and suffered immense casualties.