Guerre Révolutionnaire, Counter-insurgency, and U.S. Domestic Extremism

Authors

  • Shane Praiswater Pepperdine University
  • Quinn Hobbs Pepperdine University

Keywords:

Guerre Révolutionnaire, Counter-Insurgency, Extremism, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters

Abstract

There is no shortage of academic literature regarding U.S. military veterans and their susceptibility to domestic extremist recruitment. However, this essay identifies a new potential culprit: military doctrine itself. Around 2006, amidst a deteriorating situation in Iraq, the U.S. military looked to history for innovative ideas on how to address a deteriorating counter-insurgency conflict. Unfortunately, they drew from several dubious historical examples, most notably, the documents crafted by French theorists during and after their 1954-1962 war in Algeria. We theorize that by heavily citing these French theorists without considering their conspiratorial underpinnings known as guerre révolutionnaire, the resulting product (FM 3-24, Counter-insurgency) inadvertently legitimized guerre révolutionnaire’s philosophies to U.S. military members. With the rise in domestic extremist groups correlating with FM 3-24’s publication, we examined whether guerre révolutionnaire’s concepts were present in modern extremist rhetoric. While it was not possible in this introductory study to establish a direct relationship between FM 3-24 and the rise in U.S. domestic extremism, we find that 1) guerre révolutionnaire’s tenets are present in U.S. extremist rhetoric, 2) there are subtle differences in rhetorical attitudes between veteran and non-veteran domestic extremists within their respective groups, and 3) previous concerns regarding the improper use of history for doctrine appear valid. Finally, we consider these results in the context of future studies regarding FM 3-24’s effects and the need for an interdisciplinary approach.

References

ADL. (2020, January 23). Proud Boys | ADL. Anti-Defamation League. https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/proud-boys-0

Anonymous. (1957). Contre-revolution, strategie et tactique.

AP. (2023, March 18). Former Air Force officer gets prison term for Jan. 6 Capitol attack. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/18/1164519016/former-air-force-officer-prison-jan-6-capitol-attack

Balmas, M., Harel, T. O., & Halperin, E. (2022). I hate you when I am anxious: Anxiety during the COVID-19 epidemic and ideological hostility. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 52(11), 1081–1093. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12914

Bartusevičius, H., Bor, A., Jørgensen, F., & Petersen, M. B. (2021). The Psychological Burden of the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Associated With Antisystemic Attitudes and Political Violence. Psychological Science, 32(9), 1391–1403. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211031847

Beirich, H., & Potok, M. (2009). USA: Hate Groups, Radical-Right Violence, on the Rise. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 3(3), 255–263. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/pap020

Belew, K. (2018). Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Harvard University Press.

Bertetto, J. (2012). Countering Criminal Street Gangs: Lessons from the Counterinsugent Battlespace. Small Wars Journal. https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/countering-criminal-street-gangs-lessons-from-the-counterinsurgent-battlespace

Beutel, A., & Johnson, D. (2021). The Three Percenters: A Look Inside an Anti-Government Militia -. New Lines Institute. https://newlinesinstitute.org/far-right-extremism/the-three-percenters-a-look-inside-an-anti-government-militia/

Bowman, D., Swiecki, Z., Cai, Z., Wang, Y., Eagan, B., Linderoth, J., & Shaffer, D. W. (2021). The Mathematical Foundations of Epistemic Network Analysis. In A. R. Ruis & S. B. Lee (Eds.), Advances in Quantitative Ethnography (pp. 91–105). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67788-6_7

Breen, M., & Harbaugh, K. (2023, March 31). How to Stifle Groups Like the Oath Keepers. Bulwark. https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/how-to-stifle-groups-like-oath-keepers

Briggs, H. (1951). Report on the Emergency in Malaya from April 1950 to November 1951.

Brooks, R. (2020). Paradoxes of Professionalism: Rethinking Civil-Military Relations in the United States. International Security, 44(4), 7–44. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec_a_00374

Carless, W. (2023, July 21). The military ordered big steps to stop extremism. Two years later, it shows no results. USA TODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/07/21/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-extremism-reforms/70429571007/

Chickering, R. (2000). World War I and the Theory of Total War: Reflections on the British and German Cases, 1914-1915. In R. Chickering & S. Förster (Eds.), Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914–1918 (pp. 35–54). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139052528.003

Choi, D., Chun, S., Oh, H., Han, J., & Kwon, T. (2020). Rumor propagation is amplified by echo chambers in social media. Scientific Reports, 10, 1–10.

Cichocka, A., Marchlewska, M., & Biddlestone, M. (2022). Why do narcissists find conspiracy theories so appealing? Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, 101386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101386

Cohen, E. A. (2002). Supreme command: Soldiers, statesmen, and leadership in wartime. Free Press.

Corse, A. (2021, December 15). Proud Boys, Oath Keepers Face Lawsuit Over Capitol Riot. Wall Street Journal - Online Edition, N.PAG-N.PAG.

Deighton, A. (2010). Britain and the Cold War, 1945–1955. In M. P. Leffler & O. A. Westad (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War: Volume 1: Origins (Vol. 1, pp. 112–132). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521837194.007

Department of the Army. (2006). FM 3-24 Counternsurgency. Headquarters United States Army. https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm3-24fd.pdf

Department of the Army. (2014). FM 3-24 MCWP 3-33.5 Insurgencies and Countering Insurgencies. Headquarters United States Army. https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm3-24.pdf

Doxsee, C. (2021, August 12). Examining Extremism: The Militia Movement. CSIS. https://www.csis.org/blogs/examining-extremism/examining-extremism-militia-movement

Drutman, L. (2020). Doom Loop. Oxford University Press.

Duiker, W. (2007). The first Vietnam War: Colonial conflict and cold war crisis (M. A. Lawrence & F. Logevall, Eds.). Harvard University Press.

Dunlap, C. J. (2022). On “The Alt-Right Movement and U.S. National Security” and Authors’ Response. The U.S. Army War College Quarterly: Parameters, 52(1), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.55540/0031-1723.3139

Durand, E. (2010). France. In Understanding Counterinsurgency: Doctrine, Operations and Challenges (pp. 16–17). Abingdon.

Editorial Board. (2007, January 9). Past Time to Get Real on Iraq. New York Times, 156(53819), A16–A16.

Enders, A., Farhart, C., Miller, J., Uscinski, J., Saunders, K., & Drochon, H. (2022). Are Republicans and Conservatives More Likely to Believe Conspiracy Theories? Political Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-022-09812-3

Finch, M. P. M. (2013). A progressive occupation? The Gallieni-Lyautey method and colonial pacification in Tonkin and Madagascar, 1885-1900 (First Edition). Oxford University Press.

Finch, M. P. M. (2018). A Total War of the Mind: The French Theory of la guerre révolutionnaire, 1954–1958. War in History, 25(3), 410–434. https://doi.org/10.1177/0968344516661214

Freedman, L. (2013). Strategy: A History. Oxford University Press.

Fust, G. (2019). Why Doctrine Matters. Small Wars Journal. https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/why-doctrine-matters

GAO. (2017). Countering Violent Extremism: Actions Needed to Define Strategy and Assess Progress of Federal Efforts | U.S. GAO (GAO-17-300). https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-17-300

Gentile, G. (2015). Wrong Turn: America’s Deadly Embrace of Counter-Insurgency. The New Press.

Glazzard, A., Zeuthen, M., & White, J. (2021). A Systematic Literature Review of Effectiveness of Counter-Terrorism and Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Activities. Royal United Services Institute. https://english.iob-evaluatie.nl/publications/sub-studies/2021/02/01/literature-studies-%E2%80%93-counterterrorism-and-preventing-and-countering-violent-extremism?utm_source=Terrorism+%26+Conflict&utm_campaign=4230dd90de-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_10_08_03_44_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ce18fba55a-4230dd90de-

Hack, K. (2009). The Malayan Emergency as Counter-Insurgency Paradigm. Journal of Strategic Studies, 32(3), 383–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390902928180

Hack, K. (2012). Everyone lived in fear: Malaya and the British way of counter-insurgency. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 23(4–5), 671–699. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2012.709764

Hack, K. (2021). The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139942515

Hafez, MohammedM. (2009). Jihad after Iraq: Lessons from the Arab Afghans. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 32(2), 73–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100802639600

Haugstvedt, H., & Koehler, D. (2023). Armed and Explosive? An Explorative Statistical Analysis of Extremist Radicalization Cases with Military Background. Terrorism and Political Violence, 35(3), 518–532. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2021.1957675

Helmus, T. C., Brown, R. A., & Ramchand, R. (2023). Prevalence of Veteran Support for Extremist Groups and Extremist Beliefs: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey of the U.S. Veteran Community. RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1071-2.html

Hogard, J. (1958). Cette guerre de notre temps. Revue de Défense Nationale.

Horne, A. (1978). A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962. Viking Press.

Horne, A. (1979). The French Army and the Algerian War 1954-62. In Regular Armies and Insurgency (pp. 69–82). Croom Helm.

Howard, M. (2009). War in European History. Oxford University Press.

Hughes, S., & Machan, L. (2021). It’s a conspiracy: Covid-19 conspiracies link to psychopathy, Machiavellianism and collective narcissism. Personality and Individual Differences, 171, 110559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110559

Jasko, K., LaFree, G., & Kruglanski, A. (2017). Quest for Significance and Violent Extremism: The Case of Domestic Radicalization. Political Psychology, 38(5), 815–831. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12376

Jenks, P. (2022, July 22). Fight brews over Pentagon’s push to counter extremists. Roll Call. https://rollcall.com/2022/07/22/fight-brews-over-pentagons-push-to-counter-extremists/

Jensen, B. (2016). Escaping the iron cage: The institutional foundations of FM 3-24. counterinsurgency doctrine. Journal of Strategic Studies, 39(2), 213–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2015.1115038

Kalmoe, N. P., & Mason, L. (2022). Radical American Partisanship: Mapping Violent Hostility, Its Causes, and the Consequences for Democracy. University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo163195227.html

Kaplan, F. (2013). The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War. Simon and Schuster.

Koehler, D. (2022). From Superiority to Supremacy: Exploring the Vulnerability of Military and Police Special Forces to Extreme Right Radicalization. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2022.2090047

Korb, L., & Toofan, K. (2021, May 17). The Challenges Facing the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2021. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/challenges-facing-department-veterans-affairs-2021/

Krishnamurthy, P. S. (2022). Racial Bias in the United States Armed Forces: A Threat to National Security in the Era of Renewed Great Power Competition. Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law, 29(1), 32–67.

Krouwel, W., Eendebak, L., Boiten, M., & van Prooijen, J. (2015). Fear among the extremes: How political ideology predicts negative emotions and outgroup derogation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 485–497.

Lacheroy, C. (1958). La Guerre Révolutionnaire. In La Défense Nationale.

Lederman, J. (2021, February 2). The founder of a far-right militia once warned of federal tyranny. Then came Trump. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/founder-far-right-militia-once-warned-federal-tyranny-then-came-n1256546

Logevall, F. (2010). The Indochina wars and the Cold War, 1945–1975. In M. P. Leffler & O. A. Westad (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War: Volume 2: Crises and Détente (Vol. 2, pp. 281–304). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521837200.015

Lokay, A., Robinson, K., & Crenshaw, M. (2021). The Oath Keepers. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 14(2), 160–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/17467586.2021.1912375

Lucas, R. (2021, April 10). Who Are The Oath Keepers? Militia Group, Founder Scrutinized In Capitol Riot Probe. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/04/10/985428402/who-are-the-oath-keepers-militia-group-founder-scrutinized-in-capitol-riot-probe

Lundy, C., & Jennissen, T. (2022). Reflections on Radicalism in Social Work History: Moving Forward in a Difficult Time. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 33(3), 287–307. https://doi.org/10.1080/10428232.2022.2101852

Marlowe, A. (2010). Galula: The Life and Writings of the French Officer Who Defined the Art of Counterinsurgency. Praeger.

Marquart, C. L., Swiecki, Z., Eagan, B., & Shaffer, D. W. (2019). ncodeR: Techniques for Automated Classifiers (0.2.0.1) [Computer software]. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ncodeR/index.html

Marquart, C., Swiecki, Z., Eagan, B., & Shaffer, D. (2018). ncodeR: Techniques for Automated Classifiers. R package version 0.1.2. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ncodeR/ncodeR.pdf

Marston, D. (2006). Big Wars and Small Wars (H. Strachan, Ed.). Routledge.

Marston, D. (2023). Limited War in the Nuclear Age: American Strategy in Korea. In Makers of Modern Strategy. Princeton University Press.

McCauley, T. (2021). Race war or culture war: The diversity in right-wing extremism. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 14(2), 192–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/17467586.2021.1917771

McDermott, V., May, A., Hernández, L. H., Erdemandi, M., Mararac, N., Bean, H., Howe, W. T., Braddock, K., Munz, S., Yamaguchi, P., & DiCamillo, A. (2022). Stand down: A journal of applied communication research forum on extremism and White nationalism in the United States military. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 50(5), 572–591. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2022.2128620

McQueen, E. (2021, June 17). Examining Extremism: The Oath Keepers |. CSIS. https://www.csis.org/blogs/examining-extremism/examining-extremism-oath-keepers

Mikolashek, J., & Kalic, S. N. (2011). Deciphering Shades of Gray: Understanding Counterinsurgency. Small Wars Journal. https://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/755-mikolashekkalic.pdf

Moskalenko, S. (2021). Zip-tie guys: Military-grade radicalization among Capitol Hill insurrectionists. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 14(2), 179–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/17467586.2021.1912374

Nagl, J. (2010). Constructing the Legacy of Field Manual 3–24. Joint Force Quarterly, 58. https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/jfq/jfq-58/jfq-58_118-120_Nagl.pdf?ver=TR_fAtT5PEDnopG6KJcNNQ%3D%3D

Neiwert, D. (2014). Antigovernment Speakers Denounce Washington State Gun Law, Threaten Violent Revolt. Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2014/12/17/antigovernment-speakers-denounce-washington-state-gun-law-threaten-violent-revolt

Paret, P. (1964). French Revolutionary Warfare from Indochina to Algeria: The Analysis of a Political and Military Doctrine. Pall Mall Press.

Parker, C., & Barreto, M. (2013). Change They Can’t Believe In. Princeton University Press.

Petraeus, D. (2006). Learning Counterinsurgency: Observations from Soldiering in Iraq. Military Review. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/COIN-Reader-1/Petraeus-2005/

Porch, D. (2008). French Imperial Warfare 1945-62. In Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare (pp. 51–69). Osprey Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472895844

Porch, D. (2013). Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139226301

Porter, P. (2009). Military Orientalism: Eastern War Through Western Eyes. Columbia University Press.

Posard, M. N., Payne, L. A., & Miller, L. L. (2021). Reducing the Risk of Extremist Activity in the U.S. Military. RAND Corporation.

Rabinowitz, H. (2022, October 4). Secret recording played at trial shows Oath Keepers allegedly planning for violence in DC | CNN Politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/politics/oath-keepers-secret-recordings-trial-day-2/index.html

RAND. (2023). Military Doctrine. Military Doctrine. https://www.rand.org/topics/military-doctrine.html

Ruis, A., Siebert-Evenstone, A., Pozen, R., Eagan, B., & Shaffer, D. W. (2019, June). Finding Common Ground: A Method for Measuring Recent Temporal Context in Analyses of Complex, Collaborative Thinking. 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), Lyon, France. https://repository.isls.org//handle/1/4395

Scribner, H. (2022, June 7).

Majority of Proud Boys indicted for sedition were U.S. military veterans. Axios. https://www.axios.com/2022/06/07/proud-boys-military-indicted-jan-6-capitol-riot

Shaffer, D. (2017). Quantitative Ethnography. Cathcart Press.

Shaffer, D., & Ruis, A. (2017). Epistemic Network Analysis: A Worked Example of Theory-Based Learning Analytics. In Handbook of Learning Analytics (pp. 175–187). https://doi.org/10.18608/hla17.015

Shaffer, D. W., Collier, W., & Ruis, A. R. (2016). A Tutorial on Epistemic Network Analysis: Analyzing the Structure of Connections in Cognitive, Social, and Interaction Data. Journal of Learning Analytics, 3(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2016.33.3

Shinkman, P. D. (2021, April 9). The Extremism Question the Military Can’t Answer. U.S. News & World Report - The Report, 15–18.

Showalter, D. E. (1998). Dien Bien Phu in Three Cultures. War & Society, 16(2), 98.

Siebert-Evenstone, A. L., Irgens, G. A., Collier, W., Swiecki, Z., Ruis, A. R., & Shaffer, D. W. (2017). In Search of Conversational Grain Size: Modeling Semantic Structure using Moving Stanza Windows. Journal of Learning Analytics, 4(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2017.43.7

Simi, P., Bubolz, B. F., & Hardman, A. (2013). Military Experience, Identity Discrepancies, and Far Right Terrorism: An Exploratory Analysis. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 36(8), 654–671. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2013.802976

Spencer, J. (2016, March 22). What is Army Doctrine? Modern War Institute. https://mwi.usma.edu/what-is-army-doctrine/

Spurlin, D. (2017). The Problem Statement – What’s the Problem? https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-problem-statement-%E2%80%93-what%E2%80%99s-the-problem

Steinhauer, J. (2020, September 11). Veterans Fortify the Ranks of Militias Aligned With Trump’s Views. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/us/politics/veterans-trump-protests-militias.html

Sternisko, A., Cichocka, A., Cislak, A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2023). National Narcissism predicts the Belief in and the Dissemination of Conspiracy Theories During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From 56 Countries. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 49(1), 48–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211054947

Strachan, H. (2013). The Direction of War. Cambridge University Press.

Strachan, H. (2019). Strategy in theory; strategy in practice. Journal of Strategic Studies, 42(2), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2018.1559153

Tetreau, M. (2020, June 12). A Beginner’s Guide to Army Doctrine. The Company Leader. https://companyleader.themilitaryleader.com/2020/06/12/on-doctrine/

Tyre, S. (2002). The Gaullists, the French army and Algeria before 1958: Common cause or marriage of convenience? Journal of Strategic Studies, 25(2), 97–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390412331302685

Ucko, D. H. (2014). Critics gone wild: Counterinsurgency as the root of all evil. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 25(1), 161–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2014.893972

Usero, A., Weiner, R., Hsu, S. S., & Hulley-Jones, F. (2023). Proud Boys revealed: Videos, secret chats show how Jan. 6 plot unfolded. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2023/proud-boys-trial-timeline-jan6-videos-chats/

Valasik, M., & Reid, S. E. (2021). The Alt-Right Movement and National Security. The U.S. Army War College Quarterly: Parameters, 51(3). https://doi.org/10.55540/0031-1723.3076

van Prooijen, J., Krouwel, A., & Pollet, T. (2015). Political extremism predicts belief in conspiracy theories. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 570–578.

Weine, S., Polutnik Smith, C., Braniff, W., Erdemandi, M., & Day, L. (2019). How Can A Public Health Framework Be Applied To Preventing Violent Extremism? Office of Justice Programs. https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/how-can-public-health-framework-be-applied-preventing-violent-extremism

Wilson, J. (2021, March 3). U.S. militia group draws members from military and police, website leak shows. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/03/us-militia-membership-military-police-american-patriot-three-percenter-website-leak

Downloads

Published

2023-09-29

Issue

No. 36: Fall 2023

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Shane Praiswater, Quinn Hobbs

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The JD Journal for Deradicalization uses a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND) Licence. You are free to share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following conditions: