Irregular Warfare Index
Hub
Irregular warfare — guerrilla campaigns, partisan operations, raiding, piracy and privateering, insurgency and counter-insurgency, special operations, and the long shadow conflict that runs alongside conventional fleet actions and set-piece battles — has shaped every era of military history at least as much as the battles that dominate the textbooks. The subdomain covers irregular warfare as a research domain across every era and civilisation: ancient banditry and steppe raiding (Scythian and Sarmatian incursions, Roman frontier limitanei against Germanic and Saharan irregulars); the Byzantine akritai and the long frontier war with the Arabs; the Norse Viking raids on western Europe; the Mongol reconnaissance and pursuit forces; the medieval Reconquista guerrilla and the Iberian almogavares; the Cossack frontier societies of the Russian and Ukrainian steppes; the Anglo-Welsh and Scottish-English border-raiding traditions; the Maroon resistance in the Caribbean; the Barbary corsairs and the Mediterranean privateering economy; the Peninsular guerrilla against Napoleon; the long American frontier wars; the long-nineteenth-century colonial counter-insurgencies (the Caucasus, Algeria, Northwest Frontier, Boer commando warfare); the partisan campaigns of the world wars (Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, the French Resistance, the Greek and Italian partisan movements); the post-1945 wars of decolonisation (Malayan Emergency, Algeria, Indochina and Vietnam, Kenya, Rhodesia); the Cold-War and post-Cold-War insurgencies (Afghanistan 1979 and 2001, Colombia, Iraq 2003–11, Syria, Sahel); and the modern hybrid-warfare and proxy conflicts. Notes treat doctrine and tactics, the relationship between regular and irregular forces, financing, popular support, atrocity and counter-atrocity, and the long debate about whether irregular forces decide wars or only attrite the regulars. The cutting-out expeditions, Caribbean privateering, Peninsular guerrillas, and Barbary corsairs the current vault focus visits are one slice of this much longer history. Adjacent to MOC_Conflicts, MOC_Military_Forces, MOC_Economics_Commerce (Prize and Plunder), and MOC_Communications_Signals (Espionage).
Primary Notes
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Roadmap
(planned notes as red-links — add as research identifies gaps)
Methodology
- Defining Irregular Warfare — Doctrine, Law, and the Combatant-Civilian Boundary
- Reading Insurgent and Counter-Insurgent Memoirs
Ancient
- Scythian and Sarmatian Steppe Raiding
- Roman Frontier Irregulars — Limitanei, Foederati, and Border-Raid Warfare
- Maroon Communities in Ancient and Early Imperial Contexts
Medieval
- Viking Raids on Western Europe — Lindisfarne to the Danelaw
- The Mongol Reconnaissance and Pursuit System
- Crusader and Counter-Crusader Irregular Operations
- Cossack Frontier Societies and Raiding Economies
- Almogavar and Reconquista Mountain Warfare
Early Modern
- Maroon Resistance in the Caribbean and Atlantic World
- The Barbary Corsair Economy — Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli
- Border-Reiver Warfare on the Anglo-Scottish Frontier
- Pirate Republics — Nassau, Madagascar, and the Pirate Code
Age of Sail (current vault focus)
- Peninsular Guerrilla War 1808–1814 — Overview
- British Privateering in the Caribbean 1793–1815
- Cutting-Out Expeditions — Tactics and Famous Examples
- Barbary Corsairs and the Mediterranean Threat
- American Privateers in the War of 1812
- The Vendée and Royalist Insurgencies in Revolutionary France
Long Nineteenth Century and Colonial
- The Caucasus War 1817–1864 — Russian Counter-Insurgency
- French Algerian Conquest and Counter-Insurgency 1830–1870
- Northwest Frontier Operations — British India
- Boer Commando Warfare 1880–1902
- American Indian Wars — Frontier Irregular Warfare
Twentieth Century
- Soviet Partisans in the Eastern Front
- Yugoslav Partisan Movement and Postwar Implications
- French Resistance and the Special Operations Executive
- Malayan Emergency 1948–1960 — Counter-Insurgency Doctrine
- Algerian War of Independence 1954–1962
- The Viet Minh and the National Liberation Front
- Mau Mau and the Kenyan Emergency
Modern
- Soviet-Afghan War 1979–1989 — Mujahideen Insurgency
- Colombian FARC and the Long Counter-Insurgency
- Iraq Insurgency 2003–2011 and Counter-Insurgency Doctrine
- Syrian Civil War — Multi-Party Irregular Conflict
- Sahel Insurgencies — Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger
- Hybrid Warfare in the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict
Cross-Cutting
- See also: MOC_Conflicts
- See also: _Home