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Research draft

guerrilla warfare

vr.tr.guerrilla-warfare · ACT.ACT

Enable an AI agent to recognise and assess reported instances of guerrilla warfare, preserve disputed classifications, and support historical analysis and civilian protection.

Thing Registry Activities and processes

Research draft, second pass

A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.

recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read

Researched by: Codex

Purpose and description

Enable an AI agent to recognise and assess reported instances of guerrilla warfare, preserve disputed classifications, and support historical analysis and civilian protection.

Guerrilla warfare is a mode of armed conflict in which dispersed forces use intermittent, limited engagements and withdrawal to contest an adversary while generally avoiding sustained conventional battles.

It can be Classify documented episodes against explicit definitions and retain competing classifications.; Compare changes in an actor's mode of fighting across bounded periods.; Map documented political, military, and civilian relationships without equating association with consent.; Flag disputed responsibility, uncertain territorial claims, and gaps in civilian-harm reporting.; Prepare source-qualified historical or humanitarian summaries.; Identify questions requiring specialist historical or legal review..

Distinguishing features

Assess the actor's pattern of armed activity over a stated period; an isolated raid or ambush alone does not establish guerrilla warfare.

Test whether dispersed forces and intermittent engagements characterise the episode, while recording exceptions and the definition used.

Distinguish a mode of fighting from a political project: an insurgency label alone does not establish guerrilla warfare.

Do not classify by actor identity alone; evaluate the conduct of state-associated and non-state forces using the same explicit criteria.

Assess civilian targeting separately; a guerrilla classification neither establishes nor excludes a terrorism classification.

Scope

+ Definitions of guerrilla warfare, their provenance, and contested applications

+ Relationships between guerrilla forces, political organisations, conventional forces, and external sponsors

+ Patterns of dispersed armed activity and intermittent territorial presence

+ Civilian relationships, coercion, displacement, and humanitarian consequences

+ Transitions between guerrilla warfare, conventional operations, demobilisation, and other forms of violence

- Insurgency as a complete political struggle encompassing armed and unarmed activity

- Counterinsurgency doctrine and operational planning

- Tactical instructions, targeting, weapons employment, and evasion methods

- Terrorism as a distinct category requiring separate analysis of targets, purposes, and definitions

- Comprehensive models of civil war, occupation, revolution, or military organisations

Characteristics

Classification basis
Named definition, inclusion criteria, competing interpretation, unresolved Makes the analytical choice visible instead of treating a disputed label as settled.
Unit and period of assessment
Actor, formation, campaign, or episode; geographic boundary and date interval Prevents one episode from defining an organisation's entire history.
Operational mode
Predominantly guerrilla, mixed, predominantly conventional, disputed, insufficient evidence Allows coexistence and change between modes of fighting.
Political and military affiliation
Documented relationships to political movements, state forces, coalitions, and sponsors Separates affiliation from assumed independence or shared command.
Command cohesion
Centralised, federated, fragmented, changing, unknown; assessment source required Qualifies attribution of statements, commitments, and conduct to the wider force.
Territorial relationship
Intermittent presence, contested influence, sustained control, mixed, unknown; place and period required Distinguishes armed presence from durable control or governance.
Civilian relationship
Documented support, accommodation, coercion, resistance, mixed relationships, unknown Avoids inferring consent from residence, silence, or material transfers.
Reported civilian harm
People killed, injured, missing, or displaced within a stated interval; ranges, sources, and attribution confidence Supports humanitarian assessment while preserving uncertainty and avoiding duplicate counts.
Evidence confidence
Corroborated, single-source, contested, unverifiable; assessed per claim Prevents confidence in one claim from being transferred to an entire conflict narrative.

Also called

urban guerrilla warfareAnti-Francoist urban guerrillanetwork-centric warfareGuerrilla warfare in the Peninsular Warpeople's warMaoist insurgency in AfghanistanNew People’s Army rebellion on Negros

Where this came from

wikidata · CC0 1.0

Source repository Registry entry point

Drafted structure

Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 17 findings · 28 questions.

Definitions and boundaries Records what guerrilla warfare means in the assessment and which adjacent concepts must remain distinct.

The label can otherwise conflate an actor, a political struggle, and a mode of fighting.

Definition provenance

Preserves the author, context, and criteria of each definition.

Attributed classification

Record classification as a claim made under a stated definition, including disagreement.

  1. Which reference work, scholar, institution, or participant supplies the definition being applied? provenance
  2. What observable conditions does that definition require for an episode to count as guerrilla warfare? definition

Neighbouring concepts

Tests distinctions from insurgency, terrorism, raiding, and conventional warfare.

Mode versus movement

Assess the mode of fighting separately from the movement's identity, goals, and other activities.

  1. Does the evidence describe a sustained mode of armed conflict or only an isolated irregular attack? boundary
  2. Which claims concern insurgency or terrorism and therefore require separate criteria rather than inheritance from the guerrilla label? boundary
Armed actors and political relationships Records the organisation carrying out the fighting and its relationships to political and military authorities.

A guerrilla label does not establish organisational unity, autonomy, or political representation.

Organisation and command

Distinguishes named movements from the formations responsible for particular conduct.

Bounded actor attribution

Record which formation acted and what evidence connects it to a wider command.

  1. Which formation is documented as responsible for the episode, and how is that attribution supported? provenance
  2. Does evidence establish shared command, loose affiliation, or merely a shared name? boundary

Political and external links

Examines claimed political representation and relationships with other organised actors.

Claims and dependencies

Keep declared aims, demonstrated relationships, and inferred dependence separate.

  1. What political aims and constituencies does the force claim, and who disputes those claims? provenance
  2. What evidence distinguishes external assistance from external direction or control? boundary
Conflict pattern and territory Assesses the mode of fighting and territorial relationships through historical evidence at an aggregate level.

Classification requires a pattern across time and place rather than reliance on a force's name or one event.

Pattern of armed activity

Evaluates documented patterns without converting them into operational recommendations.

Episode-level mode

Record evidence for guerrilla, conventional, or mixed activity within a defined interval.

  1. Across the assessment period, what evidence supports dispersed armed activity and intermittent engagements as a recurring pattern? measurement
  2. Which episodes contradict a predominantly guerrilla classification or indicate a mixed mode? boundary

Presence, influence, and control

Separates intermittent access from sustained authority over territory and residents.

Territorial claim qualification

Qualify territorial claims by their meaning, duration, and evidential basis.

  1. Does a reported territorial claim mean armed presence, influence, administration, or sustained control? definition
  2. For which places and periods is that relationship documented, and where do accounts conflict? measurement
Civilian relations and protection Records differentiated civilian experiences and reported consequences of the fighting.

Claims of popular support can conceal coercion, uneven participation, and harm.

Support, coercion, and governance

Examines civilian relationships without treating populations as a single political actor.

Differentiated civilian relationships

Record how relationships vary between communities and over time, including limits on meaningful choice.

  1. What evidence distinguishes voluntary support from coerced compliance, pragmatic accommodation, or inability to leave? boundary
  2. Whose testimony supports claims about recruitment, resource demands, dispute resolution, or resistance? provenance

Harm and legal assessment

Separates documented harm, responsibility claims, and attributed legal assessments.

Harm with qualified attribution

Record civilian impacts and relevant assessments without deriving legal status from the guerrilla label.

  1. What civilian harms are documented, with what counting methods, uncertainty, and attribution to specific actors? measurement
  2. Which competent sources assess the applicable legal framework and particular conduct, and what remains unresolved? provenance
  3. What humanitarian review or protective response is warranted by the documented impacts? action
Trajectories and evidence Tracks changes in the mode of conflict and the reliability of the record used to interpret them.

Guerrilla classifications can become stale, and claims about success or disappearance can exceed the evidence.

Transitions and outcomes

Records movement between modes of warfare and distinguishes military, political, and humanitarian outcomes.

Time-bounded transition

Treat transition and termination as claims requiring criteria and a specified observation period.

  1. What evidence indicates conventionalisation, fragmentation, demobilisation, or cessation rather than a temporary reduction in reported activity? boundary
  2. Whose objectives define the claimed outcome, and how do political results differ from military and civilian consequences? measurement

Source conflict and revision

Preserves competing accounts, reporting gaps, and conditions for revising the assessment.

Claim-level evidence

Attach evidential qualifications to individual claims rather than assigning blanket credibility to a narrative.

  1. Which accounts are independent, which repeat a common source, and which reflect participant claims? provenance
  2. What missing or contradictory evidence would change the classification, responsibility assessment, or claimed outcome? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.

A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.

Reported evidence

Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.

Check these first

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  • This describes a mode of warfare, not a particular organization, ideology, or conflict; the varieties listed overlap.
  • Definitions differ over whether irregular organization, civilian support, and political objectives are essential features or common characteristics.
  • This is recall only. Legal status and applicable rules require separate verification; the label guerrilla does not by itself determine either.
  1. Which of these check these first hold for the sense of guerrilla warfare this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Kinds and varieties

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  • Rural guerrilla warfare
  • Urban guerrilla warfare
  • Guerrilla warfare supporting conventional forces
  • Guerrilla warfare within an insurgency
  • Guerrilla resistance to occupation
  1. Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of guerrilla warfare this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Real-world use

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  • Resistance to foreign occupation
  • Armed struggle within revolutionary or separatist insurgencies
  • Support for conventional military campaigns
  • Protracted contestation of state authority and territorial control
  1. Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of guerrilla warfare this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Typical measurements

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  • Conflict duration - No defining range; depends on how the conflict's beginning and end are coded - months or years
  • Frequency of recorded armed events - No universal range; depends on reporting coverage and event definitions - events per month or year
  • Conflict-related fatalities - No defining range; estimates depend on attribution and inclusion criteria - people killed
  1. Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of guerrilla warfare this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Failure modes and hazards

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  • Civilian deaths, displacement, and destruction of livelihoods
  • Retaliatory violence and cycles of escalation
  • Loss of civilian support through coercion, predation, or indiscriminate violence
  • Fragmentation of armed groups and weak accountability
  • Prolonged conflict without a durable political settlement
  1. Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of guerrilla warfare this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Regional variation

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  • Chinese revolutionary traditions prominently associate guerrilla warfare with protracted struggle and a possible transition to conventional warfare.
  • Latin American revolutionary debates distinguish rural foco approaches from strategies emphasizing wider political organization; urban guerrilla traditions also developed.
  • European histories frequently discuss guerrilla warfare through partisan resistance to occupation, often in connection with conventional allied armies.
  1. Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of guerrilla warfare this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart

Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.

  • insurgency - Insurgency is a broader political and military struggle against established authority; guerrilla warfare is one mode of fighting that an insurgency may employ.
  • irregular warfare - Irregular warfare is a broader and variably defined category; guerrilla warfare describes a particular pattern of armed engagements.
  • terrorism - Guerrilla warfare is distinguished principally by its mode of fighting; terrorism is generally distinguished by violence intended to intimidate or coerce a wider audience, often through attacks on civilians. The categories can overlap.
  • conventional warfare - Conventional warfare generally centers on organized forces conducting sustained military operations; guerrilla warfare generally avoids sustained battles under unfavorable conditions. A force can employ both.
  • asymmetric warfare - Asymmetric warfare concerns consequential differences between opponents' capabilities or approaches; guerrilla warfare is one possible expression of such asymmetry.
  • resistance movement - A resistance movement is an organized opposition that may use political, nonviolent, or armed methods; guerrilla warfare refers specifically to a mode of armed fighting.
  1. Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of guerrilla warfare this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

What the second pass must settle

  • Which scholarly and institutional definitions should anchor the model, and where do their inclusion criteria conflict?
  • What minimum observation period and evidence support a recurring guerrilla pattern rather than isolated irregular activity?
  • How should mixed guerrilla and conventional activity be represented without imposing an unsupported numerical threshold?
  • Which methods can distinguish civilian consent, accommodation, and coercion when testimony is constrained or unevenly available?
  • Does an existing Vercy world model already own this concept, requiring this registry entry to link to it instead of creating another model?
Draft as JSON