ABSTRACT
Theories of guerrilla warfare invariably reflect the experience of their author and are specific to a particular point in time and to particular circumstances. The theory of revolutionary warfare associated with Mao Tse-tung, one of the most influential theorists of insurgency in the twentieth century. Mao himself repeatedly described China in his writings as being both semi-colonial and semi-feudal, since 80 per cent of the population was rural peasants, often existing in conditions of extreme hardship and privation. In isolation, guerrilla warfare could achieve no more than tactical gains, and it was thus fully integrated into a wider revolutionary strategy. Minor guerrilla actions would become widespread, and a pattern would emerge in which revolutionary domination of a particular locality would result in the establishment of a revolutionary administration. The most prominent of the new revolutionary movements was Sendero Luminoso, which emerged in the isolated mountainous Ayacucho province of the south-west under the leadership of Abimael Guzman Reynoso.
