ABSTRACT
Introduction As important as military capability, strategy and performance are in civil wars, the role of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Royal Nepal Army (RNA) during Nepal’s Maoist insurgency have rarely been thoroughly analyzed.2 This is to a certain extent due to the sensitivity of the sector and as a result reliable information is not publicly available. By definition, the sector’s many aspects are kept secret. A major source of information about the PLA and RNA and their activities are their public statements, and the documents they have made available and interviews with personnel, but such information may contain positive bias about their respective organizations, omission of certain facts and sometimes deliberate misinformation about the other side. Newspaper reports are another source of information, but except for a few investigative reports “the reliability of news reports is always in doubt as some sensationalize the issue and others become protagonists of conflict, and some even play an advocacy role” in Nepal (Dhruba Kumar 2006: 103), while reports filed based on short trips in dangerous zones may contain information that may not have been verified with multiple sources. However, in the absence of other reliable sources of information, there is not much choice except to use this available information to describe and analyze the two armies’ performances. Our recognition of potential biases in the available information, we believe, has allowed us to weed out positive biases and misinformation. Further, collaboration between two authors, one with extensive experience in another country’s army, including counter-insurgency activities, and the other in academia, has allowed us to interrogate the available information with experiential and academic bases of knowledge. Hence, even though this study should not be taken as definitive in all aspects, we believe that until more in-depth analyses come forth, the chapter will provide urgently needed analysis of an important topic.
