Counterinsurgency: The Graduate Level of War or Pure Hokum?
The US Army’s counterinsurgency manual calls COIN the “graduate level of war.” But, the idea that enlightened soldiers were required to win a war is hokum.
Review – US Special Forces and Counterinsurgency in Vietnam
Ives’ strange book tells and retells the same story about U.S. Special Forces and counterinsurgency, repeating traditional criticisms of U.S. strategy in Vietnam.
Interview – Nick Pratt
Colonel Nick Pratt discuses successful counter-insurgency practices, the Obama administration’s drone program, women terrorists, and future international security threats.
Review – Counterinsurgency Warfare
David Galula’s classical 1964 work Counterinsurgency Warfare is one of the most cited and maligned works on the subject. A modern review of the book is necessary to dispel the myths surrounding it.
Review – Obama’s Wars
Woodward’s book is a meticulously and exhaustively researched account of President Obama’s handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the first two years of his first administration.
Review – The Routledge Handbook of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency
Paul B. Rich and Isabelle Duyvesteyn’s new handbook offers an opportunity to survey the state of the art in ‘orthodox’ counterinsurgency thinking.
The Human Terrain System in Northeast Baghdad: The View From The Team Level
Rather than debating the ethics of social science in military operations, this article provides an inside account of the Human Terrain concept in a culturally complex area: northeast Baghdad.
Jus En Bello Isn’t Enough: Human Terrain, COIN and a Reasonable Chance for Success
With words like ‘morality’ and ‘warfare’ peppering the Human Terrain debate, it is surprising that the program hasn’t been widely discussed with reference to the Just War tradition.
Review – The Counter-Counter Insurgency Manual
This book opposes the militarization of anthropology, and views the US army’s effort to enlist anthropologists as fieldworkers as ethically repugnant.
Extremist Islam and Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq
Recent conflicts have highlighted how religion and identity are central to security issues. The question remains as to what extent individual conflict zones are facets of a wider, transnational war which pits the ‘West’ against al Qaeda?
