text: Chapter 4
  seeking fundamental lasting change in a society’s political, economic, or social order. A significant
  distinction between a revolution and a counterinsurgency is a requirement of the host-nation military,
  government, and civil authorities to prepare, plan, and conduct counterrevolution, and not simply
  counterinsurgency. The main difference is the need to reintegrate the mobilized population and not only
  reintegrate members of the insurgency. Although a coup d’état can resemble a revolution in that it can
  quickly overthrow a government, this overthrow is generally done rapidly and secretly during a coup d’état
  versus a rapid fully mobilization of the population during a revolution.
  4-5. Civil wars are condition-based conflicts beginning with an insurgency. Once the insurgency achieves
  certain characteristics of organization and resembles an alternate government, the conflict reaches the state
  of civil war. This is often characterized by performing tasks associated with a state and having a defined
  government. If the insurgency loses the ability to meet these criteria, the status or state of the insurgency is
  no longer that of a civil war. The insurgent movement may attempt to gain outside recognition by calling
  the conflict a civil war, as a civil war tends to afford international recognition and legal implications as a
  competing group and not an illegal movement. According to the Geneva Convention, the criteria of a civil
  war is “that the insurgents must have an organization purporting to have the characteristics of a State; that
  the insurgent civil authority must exercise de facto authority over persons within a determinate territory;
  that the armed forces must act under the direction of the organized civil authority and be prepared to
  observe the ordinary laws of war; that the insurgent civil authority must agree to be bound by the
  provisions of the Convention.” (See the final record of the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949 vol.
  II section B, page 121 for more information on civil wars.)
  4-6. Recognized antigovernment elements in a civil war may be classified as belligerents and not
  insurgencies. A belligerent, though generally a sovereign state, can be a non-sovereign state if it is
  recognized by the international community (by two or more states or organizations like the United
  Nations), organized, and is providing services to the population within its controlled areas. In the case
  where antigovernment forces meet the criteria of a state during a civil war, they achieve sufficient
  international recognition, and they may achieve belligerent status rather than insurgent status. Although
  status may change, counterinsurgency operations, by government forces, generally remain the same at the
  theater through lower tactical levels. The difference between a group being classified as an insurgency or a
  belligerent can affect the overall status of U.S. involvement, as a belligerent has international recognition.
  4-7. +A faction that employs a coup d’état seeks to overthrow the governing authority by a quick decisive
  action by an internal faction within the government. Usually, this is the military or part of the security
  apparatus. A coup d’état may or may not result in an insurgency, as part of society may reject the change.
  Moreover, it is possible for an active insurgency to use a coup d’état to seize control over a government.
  With a coup d’état, a small group can kill or remove a leader and the leadership’s supporters and assume
  control of a state. The main point of a coup d’état is that it is a means to change a regime by actors who are
  part of the government.
  4-8. Intrastate conflicts present different challenges than interstate wars, since they often take place
  among the population and, therefore, human rights violations and sectarian violence are more likely.
  Secondly, intrastate conflicts can spread to adjacent countries that have governments or portions of the
  population that share beliefs or goals with one side or the other.
  4-9. The nature of an intrastate conflict is a grievance between segments of a state’s population with its
  constituted government. There can be a single root cause or a variety of causes perceived as so severe that
  they impact the population’s social contract with its government. There are many likely contributors to
  intrastate conflicts, including perceived weak, illegitimate, corrupt, or overly oppressive governments,
  ethnic or racial tensions, religions conflicts, economic stresses, or a need for land reform. Often an
  intrastate conflict causes the formation and growth of insurgencies and other intrastate conflicts.
  Commanders and staffs must understand the nature of intrastate conflicts even if they are poorly defined. If
  a commander and staff misdiagnosis an intrastate conflict, they can fail to properly identify and address the
  root cause of instability and the nature of the threat.