Stringer, Kevin
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Urban resistance to occupation. An underestimated element of land warfare
Due to a global trend toward urbanization and Russian and Chinese aggression toward Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively, urban resistance to occupation merits greater study. The research here presents a much-needed and unique analysis of Dutch-language primary sources on the Netherlands’ World War II urban resistance to occupation. It provides deeper insights into the occupation experiences of a highly urbanized, densely populated country in which clandestine underground and auxiliary elements played paramount roles in resistance efforts for most of the occupation period. It also illustrates the feasibility of overt, guerrilla-based activity in urban environments during the final phase of a conflict and offers insights into an understudied Landpower activity that modern at-risk countries should develop and hone.
The total defence snap link for national resistance: territorial defence forces – The Swiss example
For nations facing expansionist and revisionist neighbours such as Russia or China, a total defence approach provides a mechanism to protect both territorial integrity and political sovereignty. A key component for any effective total defence concept is volunteer, citizen-soldier territorial defence forces (TDF). This paper emphasises the role these territorial formations play as the critical snap link between the military and civilian population in such a national defence strategy. The territorial defence forces, like the snap link in mountaineering, connect the military to the civilian population in a way to ensure popular support for national resistance efforts. The article offers the historical example of Switzerland as an exemplar of total defence from 1939 to 1991 and demonstrates the role its citizen-soldier forces played in linking the population to overall resistance efforts.
The special operations doctrine of international organizations. An introductory analysis to United Nations (UN), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and European Union (EU) approaches
The area of special operations doctrine offers a number of research avenues for exploration in order to provide broader context and understanding of special operations and special operations forces (SOF) to both scholars and practitioners. In this spirit and to add to the body of existing special operations literature, this article delivers an overview to published UN, NATO, and EU SOF doctrine and compares and analyzes these documents for similarities and differences. The exploration of the SOF doctrine of international organizations is germane to states committing SOF units to missions abroad under UN, NATO, or EU mandates. While the SOF contingents will deploy guided by national military doctrine, they will need to align their operational approach with the SOF doctrine published by the multilateral organization leading the operation. SOF deployments to Afghanistan under the auspices of NATO, to Mali under the EU, and to Sudan under the UN demonstrate the real-world necessity of doctrinal understanding for multinational SOF interoperability. The conclusion offers some thoughts to follow-on areas of SOF doctrinal research that would contribute to an increased understanding of SOF.
Special operations forces institution building
SOF institution-building (SOFIB) takes on significant importance for the future because as irregular and hybrid warfare becomes more prevalent, the relevance of SOF increases. Allied and partner nation SOF can be sustainable and operationally effective in a near-peer environment only if they exist within a proper institutional framework.