From Small Wars to Guerrilla Warfare: Imperial School of British Military Thought During the Interbellum

The Interbellum era was marked by the competition of various interpretations of guerrilla warfare and small wars, which were a practical expression of rebel activity in the colonies and on the outskirts of the British Empire. Discussions in that regard reflected both theoretical and doctrinal contradictions and the bureaucratic rivalry between the departments responsible for its internal security and the confrontation between the military and civilian authorities over the boundaries of their responsibility to preserve colonial order. The evolution of the meaning of the concept of “guerilla warfare” within the British military thought in the first half of the 20th century is demonstrated by highlighting the stages of the process, historical reconstruction of the levels of discussion of this topic in a professional environment, and identifying the degree of mutual influence of its basic provisions in the face of budgetary constraints and new challenges to colonial rule after the First World War. This approach allowed to specify ideas about the place and role of the army in the functioning of the internal security system of the British Empire at the final stage of its existence. The analysis of the semantics and content of the “guerilla warfare” concept between two world wars makes it possible to apply a new approach to the issue of disagreements between the military and civilian authorities over the choice of the military and political course in the conflicts of this kind. Thus, the identified differences may be viewed as a result not of the bureaucratic differences only, but as the absence of the unified understanding of the “modern rebellion” problem among the military as itself.

Keywords

British Empire, military history, historiography, Great Britain, Interbellum, small war, guerrilla, (counter)insurgency

Received

13.07.2021

Publication date

19.10.2021

Number of characters

25139

Cite

GOST	Malkin S. From Small Wars to Guerrilla Warfare: Imperial School of British Military Thought During the Interbellum // Novaia i noveishaia istoriia – 2021. – Issue 6 C. 22-30 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://nni.jes.su/S013038640017166-0-1 (circulation date: 26.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013038640017166-0
MLA	Malkin, Stanislav "From Small Wars to Guerrilla Warfare: Imperial School of British Military Thought During the Interbellum." Novaia i noveishaia istoriia 6 (2021):22-30. DOI: 10.31857/S013038640017166-0
APA	Malkin S. (2021). From Small Wars to Guerrilla Warfare: Imperial School of British Military Thought During the Interbellum. Novaia i noveishaia istoriia (6), pp.22-30 DOI: 10.31857/S013038640017166-0

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