Abstract Subversive war has returned to have increased importance in different international scenarios in which major Western powers are involved. These complex scenarios, in some cases even insurgency and counter-insurgency phenomena, were joined by a very different phenomenon: terrorism. Therefore, and given the conceptual confusion and baneful practical consequences of a misevaluation of what a subversive war and concomitant strategies mean, it is imperative to revisit through the doctrine of the Portuguese School of Strategy and the Portuguese experience in the field, as they configure, even today, judicious axes to understand the nature of the typology of the conflict in question.