Insurgency group
A group of people allied with an insurgent movement against the occupying power. Insurgency is often defined as armed resistance to outside control, but it can also involve non-military forms of attack such as cyberattacks and acts of sabotage. Regardless of the nature of insurgency, it is almost always accompanied by a political strategy and a unifying ideology.
The foundational conflict in many past insurgencies was some combination of economic class, ethnicity, regionalism, or sectarianism – or more recently generational antagonism, an escalating global phenomenon fueled and focused by an ideology. Next-gen insurgencies will continue to seek to transform the power distribution based on this fundamental antagonism. The most effective insurgencies will sustain the nature of their struggle with a unified and mobilizing ideology of justice.
This will require a different type of insurgency organization that is networked, swarming, global, and uses narrative-centric conflict and integrated cost imposition to achieve its objectives. It will be a different model of insurgency that will test the limits of state security and intelligence capabilities. It will challenge the prevailing doctrines of counterinsurgency and the traditional notions of insurgent tactics.
The insurgency will begin with a few urban bombings and acts of sabotage against the ossified bureaucracy in Nation A’s government. This annoys the nation’s leadership and draws international attention. As this grows, other youth tribes around the world join in anger at the stifling of innovation and opportunity for their own young people. Some are attracted by the revolutionary narrative and chance for heroism. Others are bored with the mundane and desperate for an adrenaline rush. Virtual tribes skilled at cyberattacks launch multi-vector attacks against Nation A’s economy and government systems, claiming credit on social media without officially affiliating with the insurgency. The mounting costs imposed on Nation A’s leaders and the country’s reputation erode its international credits and business ratings.
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