Carl von Clausewitz, 1780-1831

Influenced Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao Zedong, Che Guevara. Montoneros in Argentina (1970s) derived his influence from Mao especially; also via Juan Domingo Perón (Argentine president 1946-55, 1973-74).

Clausewitz as source of (a) strategic advice and (b) legitimation: war not an independent phenomenon but ‘a continuation of politics by other means’.

Clausewitz influenced by struggles in France 1789-1815 and the American Revolution 1776-83: latter a war for national independence in the form of a people’s war

Experience of Prussian collapse, French occupation and ensuing war (1806-7); and of people’s war against Napoleonic forces in Russia. Observed Spanish insurrection against the French 1808.

Works include:

· Lectures on small-scale warfare etc. at Prussian War Academy, 1810-11

· His Bekenntnisdenkschrift (‘statement of belief’ ‘memorial of confession’), 1812

· On War, published posthumously 1832-44. Constitutes the first three of 10 vols. of his collected works.

Socialist Tradition and Guerrilla Warfare

Pacifist emphasis in early Utopian socialists. Socialist movement became divided over action in late 19^th century (socialists vs. anarchists in First International, division between reformists and revolutionaries in Second International—collapsed at start of First World War)

19^th century revolutions in Europe: little attention paid to insurrectionary technique. Auguste Blanqui, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels analysed defeats (later, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky did same in response to 1905 in Russia)

Carlo Bianco (1795-1843)

· First link between guerrilla warfare and radical politics

· Italian context of foreign rulers and local tyrants; little urban development; popular nationalist sentiments

· Linked people’s war, national independence and republican goal; band of fighters evolve>regular army

· Combined guerrilla warfare and terrorism

Blanqui, ‘A Blueprint for Insurrection’: not a blind devotee of violent action; related revolutionary struggles to circumstances (violence only against monarchies, not republics); emphasis on morale and organised street violence—‘Organisation is victory: dispersion is death’.

Laqueur: ‘The twentieth-century guerrilla theorists discovered their strategies through their own experience, instinct and native traditions of guerrilla war, of which there were plenty in both Asia and Latin America’.