Guerrilla Strategies: An Historical Anthology from the Long March to Afghanistan

by Gérard Chaliand

This unique anthology of writings on revolutionary warfare and counterinsurgency covers almost all the major struggles of the modern world. Chaliand, who has had firsthand experience with guerrilla movements in Afghanistan, Africa, and Latin America, provides a concise yet panoramic overview of political and military strategies in revolutionary warfare, noting their strengths, limitations, and pathologies.

Genres: History, War, Military Fiction, Military History

368 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 1982

About the author

Gérard Chaliand is a French expert in geopolitics who has published widely on irregular warfare and military strategy.

Reviews

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guerrilla warfare has been around through the ages. It is normally used by numerically inferior forces against an invader or against an entrenched government. This work evaluates guerrilla strategies during the modern era.

[Leon Breckenridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guerilla Strategies is a collection of oral reports about wars using guerilla warfare during the early 20th century. All of these wars are shown in various countries. These oral reports give views of the struggle as guerilla fighters. Reading these oral reports these guerilla warriors were not only fighting against an enemy but supporting people who couldn’t defend themselves. The pattern I saw in the oral reports was that they were ‘winning’ guerilla groups because of having a healthy relationship with the peasants. Protecting the peasants is important because the guerillas are protected by the peasants and fed by the peasants but the peasants are not protected by the guerillas.

The book also explains the limitations of colonization. How violent and murderous it was and how you have to be very violent in order to keep colonization going. One of the reports was the British perspective on the Mau Mau in Kenya. The British thought they were in an action movie, using a disgruntled ex-Mau Mau soldier to find a base of Mau Mau soldiers. The ex-Mau Mau was killed in the ensuing gunfire, the british said they don’t know who killed him. To me this is the apex of colonization where colonizers use the colonized to do their dirty work yet the colonized get hurt most in the process. The British government stated that they were the rising sun empire, where their colonies were all across the world where one colonized nation goes to sleep, another one wakes up. To be a colonizer takes fighting the colonized to stay colonized through violence and extraction of the colonized community to create european backed financial lands. Those wars against the colonized were expensive and human consuming. It will be virtually impossible for any nation to have a colonized nation on this level today because of the enormous amount of resources to do it. The colonizers now have that burden of using the economy to engage with the colonized.

What I like about the book is the fact that during war you have to live a normal life. You have friends. You love. You have faith. The point of war is to have peace after so when the guerilla set up for that peace it is easier to transition to peace. The book Guerilla Strategies explains that healthy leadership fosters healthy behavior to a healthy goal. Leadership has to show folks that each peasant and soldier has a voice. That their voice matters and must be heard. And also as leaders you must not get frustrated if your peasants don’t support you. The colonizer must not become the monster the colonized are. The colonizer/ guerilla must be able to show the peasants and your enemies that the guerillas are the righteous ones. Guerilla Strategies give you an in-depth view of war.