A group of armed people that is engaged in an armed struggle with the government. The insurgency uses violence to undermine the state’s authority and destabilize democracy. The insurgent can be organized or a collection of lone wolves, but they must fulfil certain criteria to qualify as an insurgency group. These include controlling some territory, exercising de facto control over it, and conducting armed operations in accordance with the laws of armed conflict. Insurgent groups must also have an ideology that unites their members and explains the purpose of their fight. The most successful insurgent groups are Marxist, though Islamist and other religiously driven groups also exist.
The foundational conflict that fuels insurgency is typically some combination of class, ethnicity, regionality, or sectarianism, all filtered through the lens of an ideologically unifying movement. Historically, such movements have been Marxist in character, but today the Islamic State and other religiously inspired groups are commonplace. Generational antagonism is a rising cause of conflict that could be a driving force of future insurgencies.
Some insurgency groups seek to overthrow an established regime and replace it with a fundamentalist Islamic state, such as the GIA in Algeria. Others want to enforce religious law, such as the LTTE in Sri Lanka or the Naxalite-Maoist insurgents in India. Still other insurgents are merely opposed to policies of the existing government, such as land ownership and labor rights, or seek to control territories for economic gain, like drug cartels.