Counter-insurgency and Violence Management

Abstract

Debates about counter-insurgency (COIN) have been a recurring feature of American security policy, most dramatically during the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars. These battles over whether and how to do COIN have resolved little, leading to enduring disagreements over historical memory, policy prescription, and academic theory. This chapter argues that a fundamental flaw of the discourse on COIN is how technocratic and apolitical it is. A consequence has been a profusion of tactical and operational advice that only provides lowest-common-denominator platitudes at the level of strategy. A deep frustration with COIN has emerged among many because its analytical tools are so limited.