282 CHAPTER EigHT ■ War and Strife
That strategy was first called “revolutionary guerrilla war” by its chief innovator,
Mao Zedong. It was specifically designed to counter a technologically advanced and
well- equipped industrial adversary by effectively reversing the conventional relation-
ship between soldiers and civilians. In conventional war, soldiers risk their lives to pro-
tect civilians. In guerrilla warfare, civilians risk their lives to protect the guerrillas,
who hide among them and who cannot easily be distinguished from ordinary civilians
when not actually fighting.^16
Using revolutionary guerrilla warfare during the Chinese Civil War (1927–37,
1945–49) and in China’s re sis tance to Japa nese occupation during World War II (1937–
45), Mao’s Peoples Liberation Army was able to survive many setbacks. Eventually, it
defeated the well- armed and U.S.- supplied Nationalist armies of Jiang Jieshi (Chiang
Kai- shek), whose forces fled to the island of Formosa, now Taiwan. This unexpected
outcome left Mao with a vast store house of captured weapons and, more importantly,
led to the spread of revolutionary guerrilla warfare as a template for other insurgents,
particularly in Asia.
The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a string of unexpected defeats
of the major advanced industrial powers, each of which lost wars against “weak” or
“backward” adversaries. Britain was forced to grant in de pen dence to India. France was
Abu Sabaya (standing at left), a leader of Abu Sayyaf—a Muslim extremist group—poses with a
group of rebels on indonesia’s Jolo island in July of 2000 during the Sipadan Hostage Crisis.
The group aims to establish a conservative version of Sharia Law throughout indonesia.