POLI 360 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Soweto Uprising, Plausible Deniability, Counter-Insurgency
26 Apr 2019
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Document Summary
Lecture 19: counterinsurgency"s impact on transitions from authoritarianism: the case of south africa. High popular legitimacy: mk guerillas were hugely popular within black communities. "the regime did all our recruiting for us" Challenges to armed struggle in sa: mk guerillas based in northern angola (very far from south africa, no common border with sa, hardly any liberated zones for bases, formidable apartheid war machine always on the attack. Inspires south african mass uprisings: mk manages to strike some south african targets, forces apartheid regime to spend its resources on defense, mk fights apartheid proxy unita in northern angola. Apartheid counterinsurgency: monitored black communities closely using "joint management system, used death squads to assassinate both violent and non-violent insurgents, attacked throughout southern africa. "blunt" (overt) vs. "sharp" (covert) strategies and tactics: outsourcing violence and plausible deniability: extensive recruitment of black spies ("askaris") within the anc and mk.
