Quote Originally Posted by John T. Fishel View Post
How do civil war and insurgency differ? Mike, the objective of an insurgency is to overturn the existing order. The objective of a civil war is also to overturn the existing order. Insurgencies take place within a community (writ large or small ie El Salvador, the US, the "global community"), so, too, civil wars. Insurgencies use all types of tactics, operations, strategy from terrorism to conventional force on force conflict; so, too, civil wars. For example, what was Mao's revolution? An insurgency? A civil war? The answer is, "yes." To me, this is a distiction without substance (with all due respect to Hy Rothstein whom I've known since El Salvador days.).
John,

I just wanted to let everyone know about the book. Your question was one of the biggest debates we had, and I'm curious to see how well they address that topic in the book. Personally, I'm a fan of Ken White's description of small, medium, and big wars depending on scope, intensity, and duration.

Mike