Irregular Soldiers and Rebellious States

Small-Scale U.S. Interventions Abroad

Michael P. Noonan

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781442271319
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq seemingly drawing down, and with new calls to focus on the threats of great power competition posed by states such as China and Russia on the rise, what will happen to U.S. capabilities for dealing with conflicts that occur in messy political-military environments? Irregular Soldiers and Rebellious States offers, for both expert and non-expert audiences, a useful typology and background for examining interventions where U.S. advisors and forces operating on a small-scale basis will either work with a foreign government to help defend it from threats of subversion or insurgency (known as Foreign Internal Defense) or to assist insurgents or guerrilla forces in countering a hostile regime (known as Unconventional Warfare). It uses nine examples to illustrate how the U.S.—and the British in one case—used such capabilities in either limited or assertive ways to defend (El Salvador, Philippines, Sahel, and Dhofar) or counter (Angola, Nicaragua, northern Iraq, and Afghanistan) foreign governments. Placing such interventions within the broader contexts of American military history and the cultures of the armed forces, it offers three key findings and six policy prescriptions for wisely and judiciously using these capabilities in the present and future.

Table of contents

• List of Tables and Figures
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue: Irregular Soldiers and Rebellious States
• 1 Uses of Force, the American Ways of War, and a Disordered World
• 2 Indirect Strategy, Advisors, and the American Military Profession
• 3 Defensive Indirect Interventions—Foreign Internal Defense
• 4 Offensive Indirect Interventions—Unconventional Warfare
• 5 Irregular Soldiers and Rebellious States—Past, Present, Future
• Appendix A: U.S. “Irregular” and “Traditional” Operations Abroad, 1798–2018
• Appendix B: Combatant Command Authorities and U.S. Special Operations Command as a Unified Combatant Command
• Index
• About the Author