Counter-Insurgency and the Politics of Change

With the anti-Gaddafi rebels of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) taking up the reins of power after their successful insurgency against the dictatorship, this piece in The Majalla reflects on the nature of modern insurgency and its political implications for the ‘Arab Spring’. Dr Andrew Mumford assesses how the fall of ancien regimes in the Arab world has meant that today’s insurgents can become tomorrow’s counter-insurgency, as new governments seek to assert political authority in the wake of effective uprisings.

Andrew Mumford is a Lecturer @NottsPolitics. His research interests lie in state responses to sub-state violence. His latest book is The Counter-Insurgency Myth: The British Experience of Irregular Warfare (Routledge, 2011).