The Science of Resistance

<p>The modern use of the word <em>resistance</em> was first based on the domestic insurgent movements of Europe against Axis occupying powers in World War Two especially the French Resistance. The conception of resistance as a domestic effort against an encroaching foreign force had a lasting impact on definitions of the term throughout the US military as communist regimes were understood as politically executed occupations.</p><p><br></p><p>In the original 1963 publication of the seminal <em>Undergrounds in Insurgent Revolutionary and Resistance Warfare </em>(also republished in its entirety by Conflict Research Group in 2024) the Special Operations Research Office (SORO) cited a 1949 text defining resistance as distinct from revolutions and insurgencies: <em>operations directed against an enemy behind his lines by discontented elements among the enemy or enemy occupied population.</em> This conception of resistance as inherently insurgent in nature remains influential. The 2012 <em>Guide to the Analysis of Insurgency</em> (also republished by Conflict Research Group in 2024) defines resistance as a type of insurgency (distinct from revolutionary separatist and other variants) that <em>seek[s] to compel an occupying power to withdraw from a given territory.</em> The definitions rely on describing resistance as corollary of interstate war and as a product resulting from armed violence.</p><p><br></p><p>Alternatively there has also been a broadening strain of thought on the nature of resistance in two regards: first that resistance does not need to be against a foreign occupier and second that it does not need to be carried out through the predominant use of violent tactics. </p><p><br></p><p>Resistance is a science and <em>The Science of Resistance</em> demystifies that science.</p>