Guerilla or "irregular" warfare is a term that describes stealth-based, hit-and-run tactics, as well as other unconventional tactics employed by small groups of fighters against much larger or better-armed forces. At its core, guerilla warfare is about maximizing damage to the enemy while minimizing risk to one's own forces; all other considerations are secondary.

All military personnel should be familiar with the fundamental tenets and tactics of guerilla warfare so that they can employ, counter, or evade those tactics when needed. In this guide, we'll cover the basics and provide a foundation on which you can build additional knowledge, if necessary.

What Is Guerilla Warfare?

Guerilla warfare stands in stark philosophic contrast to longstanding, traditional conceptions of battlefield tactics, which typically involve opposing armies fighting one another openly. In such cases, the force with superior numbers has a distinct advantage, although tactics, weaponry, battlefield conditions, morale and other factors are all significant variables.

Guerilla forces are, by definition, not members of a centralized or officially sanctioned military force (although regular military soldiers can and do employ guerilla tactics). Guerilla fighters typically observe some kind of command structure, though it is often informal or loosely defined.

Although guerilla tactics can defeat large armies and have done so throughout history, the primary goal is usually to force the enemy to withdraw or surrender by making the conflict too expensive or politically unpalatable to continue. Guerilla campaigns tend to be long-range, "slow-burn" efforts to whittle down the enemy's morale and mental endurance over time.

Ethics of Guerilla Tactics

Many people believe guerilla warfare to be inherently immoral, but that isn't necessarily true. Guerilla fighters generally reject conventional notions of "fair" or "honorable" combat. Of course, what they do consider fair, honorable, or ethical varies from one group to another and may or may not be correct. Ultimately, guerilla tactics are merely a tool in the same sense that one's weapons and gear are tools: the user's motives and reasons for acting as they do — not their tools — determine whether they are morally in the right.

Phases of Guerilla Campaigns

Most guerilla campaigns progress through three distinct stages. In each stage, the precise tactics that the guerilla fighters employ can vary widely, as can the timetable and geographical scale of the operation.

Phase 1: Propaganda

The distribution of propaganda, like guerilla tactics more broadly, is not an inherently immoral activity, despite the word's generally negative connotation. The term "propaganda" simply describes information disseminated by a group with the aim of persuading or influencing the general public, irrespective of the information's truth status or the group's goals. If, for instance, a guerilla force distributes factually accurate propaganda intended to persuade the people to overthrow or flee from an irredeemably evil, rights-violating regime, then that particular propaganda is being used for good.

Because guerilla forces tend to be much smaller and much less well-funded than the forces they fight against, information is often a guerilla's most powerful weapon and its importance cannot be overstated. In order to have a realistic hope of prevailing, the guerillas need the locals on their side.

Public opinion can be an enormously powerful tool, and like all other tools, it can be leveraged for evil or for good. Most dictators control their "subjects" by carefully regulating (and in many cases, fabricating) the information that the general public has access to. Guerilla fighters who can successfully persuade citizens that resisting the current regime is a risk worth taking can gain enormous support and resources over time. Citizens so persuaded often provide invaluable information, weapons, food, shelter, supplies and moral support.

The early stages of the propaganda phase typically involve covert dissemination of information through various channels such as pamphlets, flyers, radio transmissions, social media posts or word of mouth. As in regular life, online and offline communication have distinct pros and cons, but in guerilla warfare, these are much more pronounced.

Online communications can, of course, reach much larger numbers of people quickly, easily and at little to no cost. However, any form of electronic communication is theoretically traceable — some more easily than others. Such methods also require significant infrastructure — namely electricity and internet, in most cases — infrastructure that may not be present or easily accessible in some places. Many despotic governments outright ban or restrict access to certain online content — social media platforms in particular — which may further limit the extent to which guerillas find these tools useful.

If security or freedom of expression are paramount, guerillas generally opt for handwritten or verbal communication delivered in person. Despite being slow and restrictive in several respects, non-electronic communications remain one of the safest ways to transmit sensitive information in wartime and this will likely be the case far into the future.

Phase 2: Growth

On both the strategic and tactical levels, the guerilla's greatest assets are stealth and subterfuge. It makes little sense to openly engage an enemy force that has far more soldiers, weapons and supplies than you have. The most reliable way to defeat a significantly more powerful opponent is to maximize damage to their forces while minimizing damage to your own, and there are a number of ways to do that.

The growth phase begins once the guerillas have an established propaganda framework and at least some support from the locals. Using carefully planned and coordinated strikes, guerilla forces can exert increasing influence on the movement of enemy troops and supplies.

For instance, suppose that the enemy force controls an oil field and an airfield in different locations. Both locations would be valuable targets to the guerillas, but one — let's say the airfield — is more valuable than the other. The problem is that, of the two locations, the airfield is more heavily guarded, meaning that an outright assault would be too risky for the guerillas.

Instead of attacking the airfield, the guerillas target the comparatively lightly-guarded oil field — they may even do so several times over the course of months or years. Because the enemy needs the oil field, they are effectively forced to reallocate supplies and personnel from the airfield, leaving it more vulnerable. The guerillas then capture or destroy the airfield, which is now the softer target.

Of course, in any real guerilla campaign, there are many potential targets and the tactical considerations are far more complex, but this straightforward example serves to illustrate the basic progression of the growth phase. Over a long period of time, cautious and clever guerilla fighters can exert a great deal of control over enemy movement, arranging the whole battlefield until it's most advantageous to them.

Throughout this process, the guerillas may strive to recruit new members from the increasingly sympathetic civilian populace. In some cases, foreign mercenaries or even military forces may join the guerillas' cause, though this is less common.

At all times, a guerilla's most important tactical consideration is to strike only when it's most advantageous. Guerilla fighters who live in the wilderness or blend into the local population have a massive advantage over their enemies: time. The enemy, never knowing when, where, or how the guerillas might strike, must be hyper-vigilant at all times, but such vigilance is exhausting and unsustainable in the long run. The guerillas need only a single window of opportunity, during which they can execute devastatingly effective operations with little risk to their own forces, particularly with the use of ambush, hit-and-run and stealth assassination tactics. Afterward, the guerillas vanish back into the countryside and patiently await the next opportunity.

Phase 3: Assault

As the guerillas amass more personnel, equipment, supplies and credibility, they grow increasingly more capable of capturing or destroying harder targets. The assault phase of a guerilla campaign begins when the guerilla fighters are capable of launching multiple, precisely coordinated attacks against strategically significant targets across a wide geographic area. As they do so, they weaken the enemy more and more.

Throughout the assault phase, patience and caution remain critically important to the guerilla fighters. They must choose their battles carefully and engage the enemy only when the odds of success are heavily in the guerillas' favor. Provided the guerillas settle in for a long war of attrition and continue to make tactically sound decisions, they will almost inevitably force the enemy to flee or surrender eventually. Guerilla tactics are extremely hard to counter, particularly for forces that can't or won't employ similar tactics.

Skills and Characteristics of Guerilla Fighters

Although guerilla forces are smaller, more mobile, and almost invariably more effective than traditional armies, they do have significant disadvantages that they must acknowledge and work to overcome. Most obviously, they lack the large, complex support and supply networks that large armies have. Guerilla fighters rarely have the opportunity to pop into the DFAC (dining facility) for a free meal, they generally don't have regular access to supplies and they don't get paid. Guerilla fighters must fund their own operations or else secure funding from sympathetic third parties, but such propositions are extremely risky. Funding a guerilla war is almost always wildly illegal, and every person or organization who knows who and where the guerillas are is a potential information leak.

For these reasons and others, guerilla fighters must be cautious, self-sufficient, clever and highly adaptable. If an expected shipment of food never arrives, they must know how to hunt, forage, or otherwise feed themselves until circumstances change for the better. They must also master many other survival skills, such as finding water, crafting and repairing weapons and battlefield first aid.

Guerilla fighters must also develop their interpersonal skills. At any time, a guerilla fighter might have to blend into a crowd, persuade a nervous informant to cooperate or bluff their way into a restricted area. They must be intimately familiar with local culture, customs and laws, and they must have working knowledge of international law and politics, especially as they relate to the guerilla campaign in question.

The moral status, function and strengths & weaknesses of guerilla tactics are deep and complex topics. Hopefully, this guide has provided a valuable foundation. If you're likely to find yourself working in a country where guerilla forces are active, knowing the basics of guerilla warfare will help you begin to understand how and why they operate, and how to stay safe until your job is done.