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Guerrillas in the mist: reassessing strategy and low intensity warfare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2002

M.L.R. Smith
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Abstract

The argument advanced here seeks to demonstrate that terms like ‘guerrilla warfare’ and ‘low intensity conflict’ are fundamentally flawed. They do not exist as proper categories of war. Often they constitute inappropriate distinctions that impede intellectual understanding of internal war phenomena, which has in the past had a negative impact upon policymaking. The usage of these terms in strategic studies literature does not facilitate understanding but rather undermines the attempt to comprehend the complexity of warfare as a whole. What we call low intensity conflict can be fully understood – can only be understood – within Clausewitzian parameters, which embrace the entire spectrum of war.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 19 - 37
Copyright
© 2003 British International Studies Association

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