Unconventional Warfare Readings and Background

In response to my recent comments about unconventional warfare based on John Schindler's   and Michael Noonan's articles on "Special War"  (here) and (and here), someone asked me  for the three to five best books on unconventional warfare.  Below was my response and I thought I would share it with everyone in case anyone is interested in thinking about unconventional warfare.

Perhaps more than you asked for:

The foundational readings are at this web site: http://www.soc.mil/ARIS/ARIS.html which is the Assessing Revolutionary and Insurgent Strategies (ARIS) Project.  

This includes not only the original 1962 casebooks on insurgency and revolution  done by the Special Operations Research Office (SORO) in the 1960s but the updated casebook with 23 new case studies of revolutions and insurgencies through 2009 (and published in 2012 and 2013) done by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab for the US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). 

It also includes probably the most important two books to read, the updated versions of  Undergrounds in Insurgent, Revolutionary and Resistance Warfare (edited by Robert Leonhard by the way) and Human Factors Considerations of Underground in Insurgencies.

(Note that the IW annotated bibliography {COIN/CTUW) does not seem to fully download from the above site but it can be downloaded completely here: annotated IW bibliography

Though not a book I would go to this web site here   "Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerrilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism" 1940-1990." 

I would also read John Collins' book on Military Strategy (which on I keep on my desk bookshelf as well as bookmarked on Google Books at this link: 

(Military Strategy)  and pay particular attention to his chapters on insurgency and counterinsurgency strategies. (and you should read his book on Military Geography as well and keep in mind that he is the father of the Five SOF Truths (found here)

Below is a slide with my list of recommended readings I usually offer in my UW strategy lectures I give at the UW network develop course at Bragg and to the Naval Special Warfare command's strategic level combatting terrorism course for international officers. I am particularly fond of the late Sam Sarkesian's 1993 book on Unconventional Conflict as well as the late Jack McKuen's 1966 book The Art of Counter-revolutionary Warfare.

And of course Clausewitz very much applies to Unconventional Warfare as I think Mao would attest (The one disagreement I have with Sam Sarkesian is that in his book he says unconventional conflict is more along the lines of Sun Tzu than Clausewitz because I think he [incorrectly in my opinion] associates population focus with Sun Tzu and strictly conventional military forces with Clausewitz – see second slide below the readings.  But otherwise I think his book is very important).

Lastly I would say that Max Boot's new Invisible Armies is a useful historical overview of various forms unconventional warfare.

And finally I would close with the reminder that there is nothing new here.  The more things change the more they stay the same (or at least similar):

President Kennedy 1962 West Point Graduation :

 “This is another type of war, new in its intensity, ancient in its origins - war  by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins; war by ambush instead of  combat; by infiltration instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him. It requires - in those situations where we must encounter it - a whole new kind of strategy, a wholly different kind of force, and therefore, a new and wholly different kind of military training.” 

President Obama 2009 Annapolis Graduation:

“History teaches us that nations that grow comfortable with the old ways and complacent in the face of new threats, those nations do not long endure.  And in the 21^st century, we do not have the luxury of deciding which challenges to prepare for and which to ignore.  We must overcome the full spectrum of threats – the conventional and unconventional; the nation-state and the terrorists network; the spread of deadly technologies ad the spread of hateful ideologies; 18^th century-style piracy and 21^st century cyber threats.”