Insurgency

An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority (for example, an authority recognized as such by the United Nations) when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents. An insurgency can be fought via counter-insurgency warfare, and may also be opposed by measures to protect the population, and by political and economic actions of various kinds aimed at undermining the insurgents' claims against the incumbent regime. The nature of insurgencies is an ambiguous concept. Insurgency should be regarded as a syncretic phenomenon that combines the ancient apocalyptic and millenarian passions of the Peasants' Wars with modern revolutionary combination of ideologies and organization, and the guerrilla warfare.