Abstract
In its struggle against insurgent and terrorist organizations, the Philippines has utilized both population-centric and enemy-centric approaches in its counterterrorism (CT) campaigns. The situation in the Philippines provides a natural case study to gauge the intensity of rebel activity evoked by various approaches, namely by examining the country’s responses to key terrorist and insurgent groups throughout the years. The type of rebel activity that enemy-centric or population-centric approaches by the government incur can be analyzed along with factors such as administration differences, the effects of local groups in the conflict, and the involvement of the international community, including the US.
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Notes
- 1.
The Counterintelligence Corps was a United States Army agency that was active during World War II and early in the Cold War in American-occupied territories. In the Philippines, its primary function was to gather information on dissent during post-WWII instability (Ricklefs et al. 2010, 321).
- 2.
Center-seeking organizations are rebel groups that intend to become the sovereign governments in the countries they operate in. (Johnston 2012, 72).
- 3.
Meso-level conflict refers to vertical national-level conflicts such as the activity between the Philippine government and the rebel groups. Micro-level conflicts include the smaller, more locally based conflicts that typically occur between Mindanaoan families on a horizontal scale, thus affecting the circumstances of the meso-level conflicts at times.
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Sherman, K. (2017). Strengthening the Hull: The Philippines’ Strategic and Operational Counterterrorism Campaigns. In: Romaniuk, S., Grice, F., Irrera, D., Webb, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55769-8_37
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