Insurgency

Insurgency, in political science, a resort to armed force in opposition to the established government of a state or to the nature of the state itself. The modern international system is composed of states recognized by each other as having supreme legal authority within their territory. In a stable, well-ordered state, whether democratic or not, the citizens also accept the legitimacy of the state and its rules.

Efforts to change the system by methods not accepted as legitimate by the government may be called revolutionary. When such activity embraces force it may be called insurgency. The term is usually confined to cases where the use of force is on a fairly large scale and sustained over a considerable period, thus distinguishing it from such phenomena as international terrorism, riot, and so on. This distinction assumes particular importance for the international dimensions of insurgency in that if the armed forces of the insurgents assume a clearly organized form, with such attributes as uniform and a manifest chain of command, they may be recognized by other states as belligerents and come to be entitled to certain rights under international law. Equally, such insurgents acquire obligations to conduct their campaign according to legally defined norms.

Such recognition of insurgent forces is, of course, a political as well as legal act and the government of the disturbed state will naturally oppose it. In practice, the inclination of other states will depend a great deal on the nature of the conflict. There will, for instance, be less support for insurgents against a democratic state with accepted opportunities for dissent, and often more where the insurgents have a distinct ethnic identity and can appeal to the modern sympathy for self-determination.