Social Mobilization, Influence, and Political Warfare: Unconventional Warfare Strategies for Shaping the 21st Century Security Environment.

摘要

The Arab Spring has demonstrated the power and potential of social mobilization and collective action as a form of political warfare in support of unconventional warfare strategies. This power and potential is not isolated to the Arab Spring or to the Middle East and North Africa. Social mobilization and collective action have shaped the social and political environments through activism for more than a century. While Gandhi's struggle for independence set the stage, it was movements like the American Civil Rights Movement and the fall of the Berlin Wall that provide the best insight into principles related to mobilization, activism, and influence. These two movements highlight principles for radical change, but it is smaller scale movements like the Lead India campaign that bridge the doctrinal and academic gap related to political warfare and unconventional warfare in the 21st century. Although the study does not conclude with a stepped methodology for waging political warfare through social mobilization and collective action, it does highlight the three basic principles needed: political opportunity structures, mobilizing structures, and influence.