ABSTRACT
What is meant by the term “people’s war”? The concept can be defined both narrowly and broadly. Defined narrowly, the term is used to denote the body of strategic thought on “protracted war” developed by Mao Zedong in the 1930s and 1940s, during the period of the Chinese Civil War and the struggle against the Japanese. This definition is firmly rooted in the larger Marxist-Leninist theory of class struggle. Defined broadly, the concept of people’s war is used generically to denote any form of guerrilla conflict or popular insurrection, regardless of its ideological roots. By this definition, the opening and middle stages of the Chinese Communist struggle against the Nationalist (Kuomintang) regime was an example of a people’s war, as was the Afghan campaign against the Marxist regime in Kabul in the 1980s and early 1990s.
