Counterinsurgency in Africa: The Portuguese Way of War 1961-1974

Counterinsurgency in Africa: The Portuguese Way of War, 1961-1974 (Greenwood Press, 1997), by John P. Cann, is a tightly structured analysis of Portugal’s counterinsurgency campaigns in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau during the Portuguese Colonial War. With a foreword by Bernard E. Trainor, this volume in the collection “Contributions in Military Studies”, number 167, is especially valuable for readers of COIN doctrine, decolonization conflicts, and modern military history.

Rather than offering a generic overview, Cann breaks the subject into the concrete building blocks of a “way of war”. After framing the political commitment to the Ultramar and the scale of Portugal’s military effort, he examines pre-war counterinsurgency doctrine, then moves into how the armed forces built capacity through organization, education, and training. Several chapters focus on what made the Portuguese approach distinctive: the “Africanization” of counterinsurgency, the role of intelligence networks, and the operational emphasis on mobility.

One of the most discussed (and controversial) components is treated directly: social operations and aldeamentos – the resettlement policies intended to separate insurgents from populations. The final section addresses logistics, showing how sustainment shaped strategy in long, dispersed theaters.

If you’re looking for a serious, research-oriented book on Portuguese counterinsurgency 1961-1974, this is an excellent addition to a history library – and a smart purchase for collectors, students, and anyone studying African wars of independence.

• Encadernação: Capa dura
• Ano: 1997
• Páginas: 216
• ISBN: 0-313-30189-1