Heuser, B. (2010) Small wars in the age of Clausewitz: the watershed between partisan war and people's war. Journal of Strategic Studies, 33(1), pp. 139-162. (doi: 10.1080/01402391003603623)
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Abstract
Around the time of Clausewitz’s writing, a new element was introduced into partisan warfare: ideology. Previously, under the ancien régime, partisans were what today we would call special forces, light infantry or cavalry, almost always mercenaries, carrying out special operations, while the main action in war took place between regular armies. Clausewitz lectured his students on such ‘small wars’. In the American War of Independence and the resistance against Napoleon and his allies, operations carried out by such partisans merged with counter-revolutionary, nationalist insurgencies, but these Clausewitz analysed in a distinct category, ‘people's war’. Small wars, people's war, etc. should thus not be thought of as monopoly of either the political Right or the Left.
Item Type: | Articles |
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Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Heuser, Professor Beatrice |
Authors: | Heuser, B. |
College/School: | College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics |
Journal Name: | Journal of Strategic Studies |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
ISSN: | 0140-2390 |
ISSN (Online): | 1743-937X |
Published Online: | 19 February 2010 |
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