The Global Guerrilla War

From the forests of Eastern Europe to the alleyways of colonial cities, the most consequential battles of the twentieth century were often fought far from front lines. Small groups of civilians learned to live and act under occupation, threading their way between brutal state power and the need to resist it. The Global Guerrilla War takes readers inside these hidden worlds, treating resistance movements not as legends but as complex systems of organisation, risk, and support.

Ingrid Rehmann follows networks of couriers, safehouse keepers, factory workers, and informants who sustained sabotage and intelligence gathering against regimes that claimed total control. Drawing on cases from occupied Europe, anti-colonial struggles in Africa and Asia, and late Cold War undergrounds, she shows how clandestine networks survived, adapted, and sometimes collapsed under pressure. Chapters on sabotage, logistics, security culture, and civilian decision-making reveal the mundane but vital tasks that allowed small groups to exert sustained pressure on much stronger states.

Written for students, researchers, and serious general readers, the book offers a framework for comparing movements across time and place. It explains why some groups fragmented into rivalry and civil conflict while others scaled into liberation movements or enduring undergrounds. By the final chapters, readers can map any clandestine struggle in terms of its social foundations, logistical capacity, and vulnerability to repression. The result is a clear-eyed account of how resistance actually works, and a guide to thinking rigorously about risk and repression without romanticism or cynicism.