text: Chapter 4
  all of the other approaches. In addition, different insurgent forces using different approaches may form
  loose coalitions when it serves their interests; however, these same coalitions may fight among themselves,
  even while engaging counterinsurgents. A single area of operations may have multiple competing entities,
  each seeking to maximize its survivability and influence, and this situation may be duplicated several times
  across a joint operations area. This may further complicate understanding both the insurgency and the
  counterinsurgent operations necessary for success.
  4-42. The urban (terrorist) approach is an approach in which insurgents attack government and symbolic
  targets (for example an important religious building) to cause government forces to overreact against the
  population. The insurgents want the government’s repressive measures to enrage the people so that they
  rise up and overthrow the government. Although this type of method may develop popular support against
  a government that is particularly brutal or corrupt, it may only result in shallow support for the insurgency.
  The population may only see the insurgency positively because of the brutal response, not because they
  identify with the insurgency.
  4-43. An insurgency uses the military-focused approach to achieve its policy goals by military success. In
  this approach, insurgents’ efforts focus on causing the government to lose legitimacy by military success
  and inspiring a population to join the insurgents against the government. The most important idea behind a
  military focused method is that it does not require building political support among the population. Instead,
  military success and action will gain the support of a population.
  4-44. A protracted approach is an advanced approach based on Mao Tse-Tung’s theory of protracted
  popular war. It attempts to lengthen the conflict as much as necessary to assemble the resources and forces
  necessary for success and to wear down the counterinsurgent forces and their political leadership. The
  protracted war method is based upon three distinct phases: latent and incipient, guerrilla warfare, and war
  of movement. Each phase builds upon the previous phase and continues activities from all or some of the
  previous phases. The protracted method requires both a political wing and a military wing.
  4-45. The subversive approach is another advanced approach. A subversive approach attempts to subvert
  the government from within by using its political arm to become a legitimate political party and enter the
  government. Subversive activities may occur as part of other ways, particularly the protracted war
  approach.
  DYNAMICS OF INSURGENCY
  4-46. Commanders and staffs must understand the nature of an insurgency when conducting a
  counterinsurgency. This requires understanding insurgent strategy. However, to understand an insurgent’s
  strategy, commanders and staffs must understand insurgency dynamics. The dynamics of insurgency is a
  framework for understanding an insurgency.
  4-47. An operational environment may have multiple insurgent groups. These groups may be pursuing a
  wide variety of goals and interests. As such, these groups may be collaborating, fighting each other, or
  acting neutral towards each other. When commanders and staffs analyze an insurgency, they consider each
  group and provide a different analysis for each group based on the eight dynamics of insurgency.
  4-48. Eight dynamics or some combinations of these dynamics are common to most successful
  insurgencies. These dynamics provide a framework for planners to analyze insurgencies. Each of these
  dynamics can contribute to the strength of an insurgency, but each can also be used to find fracture points
  and weak points in an insurgency. Fracture points are points of internal division within the insurgency. A
  weak point is an underlying weakness, such as access to resources, of the insurgency. The eight dynamics
  are—
  * Leadership.
  * Ideology.
  * Objectives.
  * Environment and geography.
  * External support.
  * Internal support.