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Unconventional warfare
 
 
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Unconventional warfare (abbreviated UW) is the opposite of conventional warfare
Conventional warfare

Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted byusing conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation....
. Where conventional warfare is used to reduce an opponent's military
Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
 capability, unconventional warfare is an attempt to achieve military victory through acquiescence, capitulation, or clandestine support for one side of an existing conflict.

On the surface, UW contrasts with conventional warfare
Conventional warfare

Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted byusing conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation....
 in that: forces or objectives are covert or not well-defined, tactics and weapons intensify environments of subversion or intimidation, and the general or long-term goals are coercive
Coercion

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
 or subversive
Subversion (politics)

This article is about the political concept for other uses see Subversion.Subversion refers to an attempt to overthrow structures of authority, including the state....
 to a political body.

Objectives
The general objective of unconventional warfare is to instill a belief that peace and security are not possible without compromise or concession.






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Encyclopedia


Unconventional warfare (abbreviated UW) is the opposite of conventional warfare
Conventional warfare

Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted byusing conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation....
. Where conventional warfare is used to reduce an opponent's military
Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
 capability, unconventional warfare is an attempt to achieve military victory through acquiescence, capitulation, or clandestine support for one side of an existing conflict.

On the surface, UW contrasts with conventional warfare
Conventional warfare

Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted byusing conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation....
 in that: forces or objectives are covert or not well-defined, tactics and weapons intensify environments of subversion or intimidation, and the general or long-term goals are coercive
Coercion

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
 or subversive
Subversion (politics)

This article is about the political concept for other uses see Subversion.Subversion refers to an attempt to overthrow structures of authority, including the state....
 to a political body.

Objectives


The general objective of unconventional warfare is to instill a belief that peace and security are not possible without compromise or concession. Specific objectives include inducement of war weariness, curtailment of civilian standards of living
Standard of living

The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people, and the way these goods and services are distributed within a population....
 and civil liberties associated with greater security demands, economic hardship linked to the costs of war; hopelessness to defend against assaults, fear, depression, and disintegration of morale
Morale

Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used for the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others....
. The ultimate goal of this type of war
War

...
fare is to motivate an enemy to stop attacking or resisting even if it has the ability to continue. Failing this, a secondary objective can be to emasculate the enemy before a conventional attack.

Methods and organization

Unconventional warfare targets civilian population and political bodies directly, seeking to render the military proficiency of the enemy irrelevant. Limited conventional warfare
Conventional warfare

Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted byusing conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation....
 tactics can be used unconventionally to demonstrate might and power, rather than to substantially reduce the enemy's ability to fight. In addition to the coercive use of traditional weapons, armaments that primarily target civilians can be used: atomic weapons, urban incendiary device
Incendiary device

Incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus incendiary....
s, white phosphorus
White phosphorus (weapon)

White phosphorus is a flare- and smoke-producing Smoke screen agent or incendiary device agent that is made from a common Allotropy of the chemical element phosphorus....
 or other such weapons. Special forces
Special forces

Special Forces , also known as, Special Operation Forces is a generic term for highly-trained military teams/units that conduct specialized Military operation such as reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, and counter-terrorism actions....
, inserted behind an enemy's front line, can be used unconventionally to spread subversion and propaganda, to aid native resistance fighters, and to ultimately build environments of fear and confusion. Tactics of destroying non-military infrastructure and blockading
Blockade

A blockade is an effort to cut off the communications of a particular area, by force. It is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually directed at an entire country or region, not a fortress or city....
 civilian staples are used to decrease the morale of civilians and, when applicable, also the soldiers in the field through concern for their families.

Definitions and organization


The United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the Military of the United States....
 defines UW as a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, normally of long duration, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces who are organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by an external source. It includes, but is not limited to, guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare

Guerrilla warfare is the Irregular warfare warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile Military tactics to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
, subversion
Subversion

Subversion is a Revision control system initiated in 2000 by CollabNet Inc. It is used to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation....
, sabotage
Sabotage

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy, oppressor or employer through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction....
, intelligence activities
Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence is not information, but the product of evaluated information, valued for its currency and relevance rather than its detail or accuracy —in contrast with "data" which typically refers to precision or particular information, or "fact," which typically refers to veracity information....
, and unconventional assisted recovery
Extraction (military)

Extraction, in tactical combat and special operations use, is the process of removing constituents from a targeted site when it is considered imperative that they be immediately relocated out of a hostile environment and taken to a secured area under friendly control....
. Organization varies by culture and type of conflict. In the People's Wars conflicts of Vietnam and China, a clear structure of rural bases, different troop types and leadership by a strong centralized political group or party prevailed. In other conflicts the pattern is more fragmented, and unconventional warfare need not rely on rural bases at all. Generally, organization is divided into political or military wings.

See also

  • Asymmetric warfare
    Asymmetric warfare

    Asymmetric warfare originally referred to war between two or more belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly. Contemporary military thinkers tend to broaden...
  • Coercion
    Coercion

    Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
  • Conventional warfare
    Conventional warfare

    Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted byusing conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation....
  • Fourth generation warfare
    Fourth generation warfare

    Fourth generation warfare is combat characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, soldier and civilian, peace and conflict, battlefield and safety....
  • Gladio
  • Guerrilla warfare
    Guerrilla warfare

    Guerrilla warfare is the Irregular warfare warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile Military tactics to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
  • Irregular military
    Irregular military

    Irregular military refers to any non-standard military. Being defined by exclusion, there is a lot of variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used....
  • Low-intensity operations
  • NLF and PAVN strategy, organization and structure
  • NLF and PAVN logistics and equipment
  • NLF and PAVN battle tactics
  • Operation Phantom Fury
    Operation Phantom Fury

    The Second Battle of Fallujah was a joint United States-Iraqi offensive led by the United States Marine Corps against the Iraqi insurgency stronghold in the city of Fallujah, authorized by the United States-appointed Iraqi Interim Government....
  • Partisan (military)
    Partisan (military)

    A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements that opposed Nazi Germany rule in several countries during World War II, or those who after the war fought the Soviet Union in the Eastern blo...
  • Psychological warfare
    Psychological warfare

    The U.S. Department of Defense defines psychological warfare as:"The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives."...
  • Resistance movement
    Resistance movement

    A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an military occupation country or the government of a sovereign nation through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence....
  • Special forces
    Special forces

    Special Forces , also known as, Special Operation Forces is a generic term for highly-trained military teams/units that conduct specialized Military operation such as reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, and counter-terrorism actions....
  • Terrorism
    Terrorism

    Terrorism, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, is the systematic use of terror, "violent or destructive acts committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands." At present, there is no internationally agreed upon definition of terrorism....
  • Unrestricted Warfare (book)
  • Special Activities Division
    Special Activities Division

    The Special Activities Division is a division of the Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service, responsible for Covert Action and "Special Activities"....
  • A seminal work on unconventional stay-behind
    Stay-behind

    In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy....
     warfare is Major Hans von Dach
    Hans von Dach

    Swiss army Major Hans von Dach is the author of several army manuals, including the seminal stay-behind warfare book Der totale Widerstand: Eine Kleinkriegsanleitung f?r Jedermann , which first appeared 1957....
    's Der Totale Widerstand (Total Resistance (book)
    Total Resistance (book)

    Total Resistance is an official Swiss manual for resistance to enemy occupation of Switzerland that was issued in 1957-1958.It was written by Hans von Dach of the Swiss military and is a crash course in irregular resistance by ordinary civilians, rather than a plan for resistance by defeated soldiers operating as guerrillas within their h...
    )    .


External links

  • - Multi-expert blog dedicated to the study of insurgency and the development of counter-insurgency policy.