ABSTRACT
The blue, the green, and the brown are not – unlike the red, white, and blue – stripes
on a flag. They are terms used to describe, rather loosely, the waters of the ocean (the
‘blue’), the waters around coasts (the ‘green’), and the waters of rivers and lakes (the
‘brown’). Insurgency operations have been mounted on all of them. The aim of this
paper is to provide an introduction to maritime insurgency. It will look at selected his-
torical and contemporary examples of insurgent operations in each of these environ-
ments, and then address movement and supply operations that are undertaken on all
three. It will show, first, that insurgency can take place at sea (and along coasts and
rivers), but always with the aim of achieving effect on land and, second, that the links
between insurgent and criminal activity are becoming more prevalent, such that the
tactics and practices of both are becoming difficult to tell apart.
