text: Chapter 2
  STRUCTURE
  2-14. In general, there are three categories of leadership found in insurgencies. They are—
  Single person
  2-15. One person may be the overall leader of an insurgency. This leadership structure has one person
  who provides cohesion, motivation, and direction for the insurgency. Cuba’s Fidel Castro is an excellent
  example of a single person leadership structure. However, this single leader may centralize power
  or decentralize decision-making and execution, leaving decision-making and execution to subordinates. At
  the local level, most units will see organizations controlled by a single person.
  Single group or party
  2-16. The insurgency may be headed by a ruling council that makes and executes policy. This
  leadership group or party may also control other groups involved in the insurgency. China’s Communist
  Party, before the ascendancy of Mao, is an example of a group leading an insurgency.
  Group of groups
  2-17. Different groups that have different concepts of how the country should be governed make up the
  leadership. Under this kind of leadership, there will be many leaders, possibly unified only by their
  opposition to the government. They compete with each other and the government. Example: The partisan
  forces in Yugoslavia and Greece during World War II were united in their fight against the German
  occupation, but ranged from monarchist to democratic to communist. Sometimes, they fought each other
  more violently than they did the Germans.
  2-18. As a group, insurgent leaders operate in either a decentralized or centralized manner.
  Decentralized
  2-19. The power base of some insurgencies is collective and does not depend on specific leaders
  or personalities to be effective. These insurgencies are easier to penetrate, but recover rapidly when they
  lose key personnel. Decentralization restricts an insurgency in its ability to function as a coherent body
  and to create a viable counter state. However, decentralized insurgencies are very hard to destroy and can
  continue to sow disorder, even when degraded. For example, Al Qaeda in 2008 is a loose, decentralized
  organization held together by an ideal of re-establishing the Caliphate.
  Centralized
  2-20. Other organizations depend on a single, often charismatic personality to provide cohesion,
  motivation, and direction. Centralized insurgencies make decisions and initiate new actions rapidly.
  However, they are vulnerable to disruptions if key personalities are removed, co-opted, discredited,
  or eliminated. These insurgencies are often led by traditional authority figures such as tribal sheikhs, local
  warlords, and religious leaders. For example, Tecumseh was the major factor in the creation of Shawnee
  confederation. After he was killed in battle, the confederation fell apart.
  IDENTIFICATION OF KEY LEADERS
  2-21. Identifying leaders can be critical in determining an insurgency’s organizational structure,
  strategy, and tactics. Understanding the basic beliefs, intentions, capabilities, and vulnerabilities of known
  key leaders is extremely important to countering insurgency. Removing these key leaders will normally
  degrade an organization’s capabilities. Che Guevara was a well-known, centralized leader that
  counterinsurgents effectively targeted, when he was killed, his insurgency fell apart. Alternately, in the
  case of the decentralized leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his organization, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, although
  severely disrupted, continued as a functioning organization after his death. The following information
  is vital to understand and target an insurgent leader: