Originally Posted by John T. Fishel
Ryan--
All civil wars are insurgencies if by insurgency we mean an effort to overturn a govt and replace it with another by armed means. Not all insurgenies are civil wars. If the govt is some external power or a clearly defined different group. Thus, the ANC insurgency against the RSA was not a civil war because both Afrikaners and Africans defined themselves as different peoples. Of course, the outcome was to redefine all S Africans as one people. And, I left off the Anglo S. Africans. so, perhaps, it was a civi war after all.
Cheers
JohnT
IMO that is about the best definition you can get. I would add if it is two opposing groups of "citizens"(legal residents) inside the same Geographic boundary or country, it will usually be viewed as Civil War. But as John points out whenever an External power/group "non-citizens" comes into the picture it will tend to be called an Insurgency.
The very term Insurgency is rather nebulous because it often depends on the viewpoint you have as to who is the good guy or bad guy. I have often thought that term was invented because it is more Politically acceptably to use that term as opposed to calling it some type of War(Civil or Un-Civil).
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