Insurgency warfare as an emerging new mode of warfare and the new enemy

Abstract Asymmetric insurgency warfare is the dominant form of conflict today. The global community has been observing this form of conflict around the world for the past 15 years. The current insurgency warfare is substantially different from warfare of commonsense. This new enemy, the so-called insurgents, is a group of small irregulars, terrorists, religious fanatics, and criminals. Strikingly, the highly advanced and mighty military such as the U.S. forces cannot completely win this battle, despite so much efforts and sacrifice. Rather, the inferior Islamic insurgents seem to be gaining in strength. This paper is an attempt to understand today's irony. For doing so, it tries to explain: (i) what the historical meaning of asymmetric insurgency warfare is; (ii) who this new opponent, called Islamic insurgents is; and (iii) how this new enemy fights. This paper argues that the current asymmetric insurgency warfare should be understood beyond modernity. It suggests that the insurgency warfare is a new mod...