The total defence snap link for national resistance: territorial defence forces – the Swiss example

• Authors: Kevin D. Stringer

Abstracts

EN

For nations facing expansionist and revisionist neighbours such as Russia or China, a total defence approach provides a mechanism to protect both territorial integrity and political sovereignty. A key component for any effective total defence concept is volunteer, citizen- soldier territorial defence forces (TDF). This paper emphasises the role these territorial formations play as the critical snap link between the military and civilian population in such a national defence strategy. The territorial defence forces, like the snap link in mountaineering, connect the military to the civilian population in a way to ensure popular support for national resistance efforts. The article offers the historical example of Switzerland as an exemplar of total defence from 1939 to 1991 and demonstrates the role its citizen-soldier forces played in linking the population to overall resistance efforts. This Swiss historical experience provides three main concepts for consideration today: (1) the creation of a government directed and functional levée en masse that mobilizes the entire population to support total defence; (2) the establishment of a national redoubt or refuge, either in-country or abroad, to provide sanctuary for the resistance movement; (3) and the organisation of specialised, multi-crisis capable territorial units for the full range of total defence missions.

Keywords

EN

total defence; resistance; territorial defence forces; small states; levée en masse; national redoubt

• Publisher: Krakowska Akademia im. Andrzeja Frycza Modrzewskiego
• Journal: Bezpieczeństwo. Teoria i Praktyka
• Year: 2022
• Volume: XLVIII
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 237-246

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Kevin D. Stringer

• General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania

References

• Bērziņa I., “From ‘total’ to ‘comprehensive’ national defence: the development of the concept in Europe”, Journal on Baltic Security, vol. 6, no. 2, 2020, pp. 7–15.
• Brice M., Forts and Fortresses, London: Quarto Publishing, 1990.
• Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft vom 18. April 1999, SR 101, Art. 59 Militär und Ersatzdienst.
• Caraccia M., Guerrilla Logistics, Student thesis, US Army War College, Carlisle, PA, 8 April 1966.
• Codevilla A., Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and the Rewriting of History, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2000.
• Comprehensive Defence Handbook, Edition A, Version 1, Mons: NATO Special Operations Headquarters, December 2020.
• Guisan H., Bericht an die Bundesversammlung über den Aktivdienst 1939–1945, Bern: Eidgenössische Drucksachen und Materialienzentrale, 1946.
• Guisan H., Der Oberbefehlshaber der Armee, Weisungen für die Organisation von Massnahmen gegen Saboteure, Luftlandetruppen und durchgebrochene Panzertruppen, AHQ, 12. Mai 1949, [in:] H.R. Kurz, Dokumente des Aktivdienstes, Frauenfeld: Verlag Huber, 1965, pp. 60–62.
• Häsler H., “Grundsätzliche Überlegungen eines ehemaligen Generalstabschefs”, [in:] Erinnerungen an die Armee 61, ed. F. Betschon, L. Geiger, Frauenfeld: Verlag Huber, 2009, pp. 95–108.
• Head-König, A.-L., “Bevölkerung“, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, 30 March 2012, https://hlsdhs-dss.ch/de/articles/007946/2012-03-30 [accessed: 27 December 2021].
• International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2021, London: Routledge, 2021.
• Joint Publication (JP) 3-0: Joint Operations, Washington, DC: The Joint Staff, 17 January 2017, Incorporating Change 1, 22 October 2018.
• Kurz H.R., “Vor vierzig Jahren: Aufstellung der Ortswehren,” Der Fourier, vol. 53, no. 6, 1980, pp. 211–215.
• Peer A., Der Aktivdienst. Die Zeit nationaler Bewährung 1939–45, Zofingen: Ringier & Co., 1975.
• Porter B.D., War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics, New York, NY: The Free Press, 1994.
• Rings W., Schweiz im Krieg 1933–1945: Ein Bericht, Zürich: Verlag Ex Libris, 1974.
• Sharp G., From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, New York: New Press, 2012.
• Stringer K.D., “Building a Stay-Behind Resistance Organization: The Case of Cold War Switzerland Against the Soviet Union”, JFQ: Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 86, 2017, pp. 109–114.
• Stringer K.D. Military Organizations for Homeland Defense and Smaller-Scale Contingencies, Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2006.
• Stringer K.D., “Special Operations Forces (SOF): The Integrators for Total Defense and Resistance”, Journal on Baltic Security, vol. 8, no. 1, 2022, https://journalonbalticsecurity.com/journal/JOBS/article/3/text [accessed: 17 May 2022].
• Stringer K.D., “Survival in the Russian Occupied Zone: Command and Organization in Resistance Underground Operations”, Military Review, vol. 101, no. 4, 2021, pp. 125–132.
• Stringer K.D., Territorial Defense and SOF Roles in National Resistance, lecture and presentation, Ministry of Defense Resistance and Resilience Conference, Tbilisi, Georgia, 28 October 2021.
• The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the Revolution., ed. H.H. Peckham, Clements Library Bicentennial Studies Series, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974.

Identifiers

DOI

10.48269/2451-0718-btip-2022-3-017

Biblioteka Nauki

2165711