What Is the ROC?
The ROC is a strategic planning concept that outlines how a legitimate government can prepare for and coordinate resistance activities if sovereignty is threatened or lost. It builds a shared lexicon and operational framework using terminology familiar to allied forces — including underground networks, auxiliary support systems, shadow governance elements, and the role of armed resistance within a broader societal effort.
The ROC is not doctrine, not a how-to manual, and not an insurgency guide. It is a conceptual foundation designed to establish a common understanding of national resistance and align partner nations on terminology, structures, and expectations — before a crisis occurs.
The ROC is designed to:
- Establish a common understanding of national resistance across civil and military domains
- Clarify the roles of government, civil society, and security institutions
- Align partner nations and allies on terminology and expectations
- Encourage pre-crisis preparation, legal structures, and resilience-building
- Integrate resistance planning within Total Defense and Comprehensive Defense models
Why Was It Created?
The ROC was developed to fill a significant doctrinal gap: many nations recognize the need for societal resilience and national resistance but lack a unified, interoperable model for what resistance looks like at the strategic, operational, and organizational levels. It addresses a gap left by two decades of counterinsurgency-focused Western military literature, bringing attention back to defensive, population-centered resistance under occupation.
The ROC was created to:
- Provide a coherent national-resistance framework across civil and military domains
- Strengthen deterrence by ensuring capable, organized resistance options exist before crisis
- Guide governments on pre-crisis legal, political, and societal preparation
- Integrate resistance into national defense plans — not treat it as an ad-hoc wartime improvisation
- Clarify the relationship between resistance, resilience, and allied support
Developed through multinational collaboration and informed by contemporary European security concerns, the ROC draws on the experiences of nations that have historically maintained resistance doctrine — providing a transferable model for allies who have not. Its lexicon is deliberately aligned with NATO-compatible terminology to ensure interoperability with partner forces who may support resistance activities.
How to Use It
The ROC is intended as a strategic guide, not a step-by-step manual. It is most effective when integrated into normal defense planning cycles, civil preparedness programs, and multinational training initiatives. Governments, planners, educators, and allied partners can use it across a range of contexts:
Inform Total Defense and Comprehensive Defense program development at national and institutional levels.
Build or refine national resilience strategies and align interagency organizations around shared resistance principles.
Develop policy, legal, and governance frameworks that enable resistance before a crisis requires them.
Educate security professionals on the organizational and societal dimensions of resistance and irregular warfare.
Improve interoperability with partners who may support resistance activities using a shared operational lexicon.
Conduct staff rides, tabletop exercises, and wargames related to national defense planning and resistance scenarios.
// Download the ROC
The full Resistance Operating Concept document — unclassified, public domain. Free to download, reproduce, and distribute.
Download PDF — Free// Key Concepts
The ROC introduces a structured lexicon for national resistance. Core elements include: