Ideology is prehaps the most misunderstood aspect of Insurgency. Throughout the GWOT our national strategy has identified it as the strategic Center of Gravity, and launched our entire national security aparatus on quest to "Defeat Extremist Ideology."
Robb goes to the other end of crazy and says that ideology and politics are no longer important for "modern insurgency."
Insurgency is insurgency, the principles don't change, but the environment does. In today's globalized world the state system is having less relative power and importance as populaces gain in the same. But they are still here, and will be here for decades, and probably centuries to come. Another big change is the rise of non-state organizations, like AQ, that are now waging UW much as states always have.
Ideology is absolutely a critical requirement to any and every insurgency. It is the message that speaks to the populace, and takes a position that the target government is either unable, or unwilling to co-opt. You must have one to run a successful insurgency. However, though you must have one, the nature of it is not particularly important so long as it accomplishes the purpose stated here. We focus far too much on "defeating ideologies," and not nearly enough on addressing underlying causes that make a populace susecptible to such seditious messaging.
As Chairman Deng said regarding ideology: "It does not matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice."
So, while I would agree that our focus on ideology is currently terribly wrong; to suggest that it, and more aburdly politics (insurgency is politics) are no longer relevant offers nothing helpful to the debate.
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