countersurge

plural countersurges

1. A surge opposing an earlier surge.

   Across the centuries the fortunes of the two religions have risen and fallen in a sequence of momentous surges, pauses, and countersurges.

   1997, Samuel P. Huntington, The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order

   1 more example

   With the Shiite militias having taken a lower profile since the troop increase began, and with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia embarking on its own sort of countersurge, a main focus of the American military operation is to deprive the group of its strongholds in the areas surrounding Baghdad — and thus curtail its ability to carry out spectacular casualty-inducing attacks in the Iraqi capital.

   2007 July 13, Michael R. Gordon, “Bush Distorts Qaeda Links, Critics Assert”, in New York Times