Rise of the Civilian Soldier From Resistance to Revolution, Case Studies in Italian and Vietnamese Guerrilla Warfare

Abstract

The body of this thesis deals with the question of how revolutionary guerrilla warfare as we know it today came to be and how it has shaped the history of geopolitics, military doctrines, and the way that wars are fought. It is easy to see that traditional interstate warfare is far less common today than intrastate warfare. Civil wars, terrorism, insurgencies, revolutions, and insurrections constitute the majority of modern conflicts. The purpose of this thesis is to explain the origins and development of the modern theories of revolutionary guerrilla warfare. It uses a comparative analysis of the Four Days of Naples and the Battle of Dien Bien Phu to demonstrate the historical evolution of guerrilla tactics, and how this evolution has continued to the present day.