The Mask of Subversion - A Snap Shot

20 February 2011

Note:  The purpose of this piece is to introduce readers to the issue of subversion and its impacts on social stability and instability.  Infiltration and subversion are key elements of irregular warfare, formerly known as low-intensity conflict.  Infiltration and subversion is a thinking man’s game as the subversive is often materially weaker than his opponent.  His survival and success is based on his ability to infiltrate, position, deceive/manipulate/shape the environment, maneuver, set and execute an ambush.

The Masks and Impacts of Subversion – A Snapshot

Subversion is a means used by various actors to undermine the sovereignty and stability of a locality or state for profit or geopolitical gain. The act of subversion may be intentional or consequential, but the victims under both circumstances are the civilian populace as society and stability are altered or destroyed. Governmental, security and financial voids result, and whichever actor is quicker and best organized can exploit this to their benefit in order to control desired territory, or even a state. Thus subversion may start in a local community, but later develop into a regional problem. The repercussions of subversion highlight the interconnections of subversive actors and their impacts in the international system. Three examples are Mexico, Lebanon and possibly Egypt.

What is Subversion?

Subversion is defined as “a systematic attempt to overthrow or undermine a government or political system by persons working secretly from within” (Merriam-Websters, n.d.). Once can go further and say this can include any organization, not just a government or political system.  Such efforts may be deliberate or consequential. With regards to the state, a systematic effort may be in the form of a campaign plan in order to take full control of a locality, a nation-state and its people. In a consequential sense, organized criminal elements, driven by profit, may only be concerned with disrupting government control over key territory or related mechanisms in order to continue their trade. However, states consist of a system of systems that affect the whole body. Thus if one town is subverted, the resulting social and economic impacts may destabilize other areas leading up to the state. Simply said, if a neighborhood has problems, the wake of its damage may resonate to city, county, state and then nation until the whole country finds itself weak and left exploitable by opportunists with nefarious objectives.

Subversion involves the use of soft and hard power. Soft power may be in the form of disinformation, propaganda or even humanitarian programs a targeted population may find appealing – a carrot (Nye and Owens, 1996). Hard power comes in the form of cold hard force, lethal force such as murder or torture - coercion- a stick (Nye, 2006).

The use of direct and indirect approaches may also be used by those who employ subversion. Indirect approaches involve the use of covers or fronts to appear legitimate on the surface, yet have nefarious intentions at heart. Subversives therefore attempt to infiltrate a target in order to become a part of the government in order to increase maneuverability for their organizations, but with legitimate protections offered by the state.  Think of water when thinking about indirect approaches. Water travels the path of least resistance, is often subtle- clandestine and exploits whatever gaps left open. Direct approaches may be in the form of targeted kidnappings and or killings- overt.

Subversives may also leverage what one purported former KGB operative called “useful idiots” (Bezmenov, 1985). “Useful Idiots” are ideologues who unwittingly support objectives that run parallel to the interests of the subversive (Bezmenov, 1985). During the Cold War, intellectuals, media and ideologues were molded and influenced a manner to help push Soviet objectives (Bezmenov, 1985).  Like minded infiltrators and subversives may attempt to use similar tactics in the modern age to fell geopolitical opponents in order to shape conditions towards their interests.

Subversives will use all approaches and forms of power to achieve their objectives. Their primary modus operandi to gain power and influence is by infiltration. So, like the devil, subversives will make you feel good, that all is great until the subversive takes possession of your soul. Then the mode changes from carrot to stick is one finds themselves a slave in order to avoid death.

Mexico

Mexico is the perfect example of subversion by consequence. Various drug organizations are competing for key terrain in order to produce and ship their cargo in to consumer states, such as the United States. One Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) known as La Familia uses a combination of approaches and power to exert force on local governance infrastructures drive a wedge between legitimate governance and the population in order to secure its interests. What often works in favor of the DTOs is that the preexisting governance structures are already weak. Lack of jobs, opportunity and high corruption make the local populace desirous of change. Some opt for supporting the DTOs who fill a void left open by the government of Mexico. The DTOs need support of the population in order to do their business. If they cannot buy local support, they may instill fear in a population so they do not interfere with their operations.

La Familia will provide jobs to the unemployed, offer drug rehabilitation assistance and render them spiritual aid by church.  In exchange for these benefits, the people will traffic, torture and kill for the cartel (Grayson, 2010, III).  DTOs use another soft power tool to expand their control and influence over their areas of interest; they are shaping Mexico’s culture, a culture “of criminality” (Kocherga, 2011).  This is dangerous in that such an effort only perpetuates and sustains instability in the minds and hearts of future Mexican citizens.  Criminal activity becomes socially acceptable.    The government of Mexico is often viewed as corrupt and ineffective due to its inability to provide jobs, education and a future for its current population,  as well as future generations of Mexicans (Kocherga, 2011).   Cartels and the media are able to leverage these failures of effective governance in their favor.  Traffickers are seen with money, women and guns, thus creating a false god for future generations of Mexicans to follow.  So while the cartels may not necessarily be insurgents in the form of wanting to overthrow a constituted government, the continual shaping of perceptions will likely push the population to move into this direction.  

Their [La Familia’s] ruthlessness allows them to have psychological dominance over the population. While they achieve this degree of control via hard power via torture, decapitations and murder, the wake left by these terrorist acts remain as soft power and keep people under control. And while the nation of Mexico has no death penalty, the cartels do. This gives the cartels another psychological advantage over the people. The effects continue however in that if a cartel member is jailed, he will not likely be prosecuted and will return to the street to take revenge against those who put him in jail. Thus the cartels, not the state, control the territory of la Familia (Grayson, 2010, 46).

This [La Familia] is just one organization in one part of Mexico. However there are multiple DTOs that are conducting similar actions in other parts of Mexico. These parts of Mexico have become fiefdoms, where lawlessness pervades and the government is essentially helpless in stopping it. Cartel related deaths have climbed from 2006-2008 at 7,000 lives to just under 36,000 in early 2011 (Córdoba and Luhnow, 2011).

Mexico’s apparent inability to meet the needs of the people through effective governance created voids for DTOs to exploit. This may all lead to a failing state, or at least a state that will always exist in some form of conflict. These continued voids may allow international terrorists, nefarious state actors or other organized criminal elements to create new bases of operation which can then spread into the United States (Rourke and Boyer, 2010, 172). During bad economic times, people will do what they feel necessary to survive and may prostitute themselves to the dollar/dinero. The cartels dominate the hearts and minds of the Mexican people from both the soft power and hard power perspectives.  This is extremely critical as Napoleon once said, “In war, the moral is to the material as three is to one.”  Unless the government of Mexico disrupts this hold, the state has no chance of regaining control over the territories it has already lost.  And, if the government does not meet the needs of its people the subversion will only expand. The potential for further destabilization in the region exists.   

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