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One leader (Roman Nose) certainly had that charisma, but the other (Crazy Horse) didn't seem to...or didn't use his in the same way. Both exerted influence over younger warriors through their conduct...

It could also represent the "fundraising" phase (as put forward by Carlos Marighella). He contended that insurgent groups (urban guerrillas in his language) needed to raise operational funds by...

Except that it's not all about control of resources. I can point to at least two individuals who had considerable authority within their respective Native American tribes who controlled little or...

I know you didn't, but you conveniently used the term close to my posting string. Didn't mean to imply that you were doing any lumping.

Just some snippage from that post, but I think it's also risky to lump "hunter-gatherers" into a single group like that. If you were to look at Vietnam, and the Montagnard population in particular,...

The first issue is the concept of "chief." The position in the sense you're using it is an Anglo construction that didn't exist within the Kiowa. Theirs was a political society based more on blocs of...

Perhaps, but I think you're doing the discussion a disservice by using the Westphalian "state" (your quotes) argument to try to box politics into a modern construction. Politics are social...

No worries. It's good to have multiple examples.

I think part of that goes back to how you define politics. There's going to be nation-state politics, but there's also social and tribal/group politics that predate all that. Any hunter-gatherer...

Quite true, Tom. I'd also add that in many cases the NGO is a business with an agenda (aside from 'simple' profit) seeking work. In some cases that agenda might be helping those in need, but that...

Joseph actually fought the Army in more of a stand-up fashion, although his leadership was somewhat mitigated or modified by that of Looking Glass. Geronimo was little more than a bandit (even in the...

I can only second Mike's comment. The current fixation on Vietnam and so on really shortchanges historical COIN/Small Wars and ensures that we ignore many of the institutional blindspots that have...

Perhaps it's because in its classic sense an insurgency IS a strategy. It is a campaign (or series of campaigns...or linked operations) aimed at accomplishing a specific goal or goals and has both a...

This has always interested/baffled me as well, and is one of the things that pushed me in this research direction.

Ken,

The group I'm dealing with (Indian Wars officers with CW service) certainly had egos...in plenty.;) That is something I was going to factor in...ego combined with an ability to learn and set...

Thanks in part to Rob's suggestion I'm starting to work up a possible article about the ability of commanders to adapt (or not adapt) when moving from the Civil War to the Indian Wars. It is, indeed,...

With VN, I use the statement in direct reference to MACV under Westy and his staff. I know it was picked up on at lower levels (with varying degrees of success), but at the end of the day it was a...

I have never bought into the concept that there is only "one COG to rule them all"; rather I feel that there are many (and EBO may be a "scientific" variation on this) acting in concert. Some are...

We may have gotten away from this in a mainstream sense because we've become such an industrial/mechanical society and lost touch with that side of our cultural identity/focus. As the focus has...

For those of us who study the Indian Wars, this is nothing new. I could also mention the case of Isa Tai of the Comanche, who goaded his people into a conflict that they ultimately lost. Most good...

Yet again we agree. I think it's another manifestation of the American/Western urge to label and thus compartmentalize the obvious...thereby making it somehow "special."

Agreed 100%+, and it's always been that way. I can dig up any number of examples from my own "pet" period of one officer or sergeant's simple (to him) action having major consequences for policy...

Tom,

That also tends to be where many of the efforts on the Frontier failed: they were trying to turn the tribes into something they were not at the time (pastoral farmers...though many had been...

Rob,

Many of my thoughts and examples tie back to the Indian Wars (one of my main areas of expertise and perhaps the longest COIN effort ever undertaken by the US Army...though the term didn't...

This is similar to what was done with both SF A-Teams in the Montagnard regions of SVN and the USMC CAP practices in I Corps. It was very successful (at least in the early days) with SF, and CAP also...