Vindication of Gian's view ?
Gian P. Gentile, A Strategy of Tactics: Population-centric COIN and the Army (2009):
Quote:
But the most damaging consequence to the American Army from the new zeitgeist of COIN is that it has taken the Army’s focus off of strategy.
Currently, US military strategy is really nothing more than a bunch of COIN principles, massaged into catchy commander’s talking points for the media, emphasizing winning the hearts and minds and shielding civilians. The result is a strategy of tactics and principles.
Conclusion
Instead of American Army officers reading the so-called COIN classic texts of Galula, Thompson, Kitson, and Nagl, they should be reading the history of the British Empire in the latter half of the nineteenth century. It is in this period that if they did nothing else right the British Army and government did understand the value of strategy. They understood the essence of linking means to ends. In other words, they did not see military operations as ends in themselves but instead as a means to achieve policy objectives. And they realized that there were costs that had to be paid.
Regards
Mike
Lectures In History US Marines In The Banana Wars
I watched this whole lecture last night, it is an hour and 15 minutes. The link below is a Short preview of the lecture from the Naval Academy in Annapolis and the Professor Aaron O' Connel is a Lt. Col. in the USMC reserve. It covers the history of Small Wars and how it has shaped present COIN doctrine and does work or not! Excellent lecture and very eye opening at times compared the regular hop la about COIN theory in general.
http://www.c-span.org/History/Events...10737440212-1/
2 Attachment(s)
1940 Small Wars Manual - Strategy
Only 4 attachments are allowed per page. Here are the first two pages of the SWM's Section II ("STRATEGY"). In a nutshell:
Quote:
The military strategy of small wars is more directly associated with the political strategy of the campaign than is the case in major operations. In the latter case, war is undertaken only as a last resort after all diplomatic means of adjusting differences have failed and the military commander's objective ordinarily becomes the enemy’s armed forces.
and:
Quote:
In small wars, either diplomacy has not been exhausted or the party that opposes the settlement of the political question cannot be reached diplomatically. Small war situations are usually a phase of, or an operation taking place concurrently with, diplomatic effort. The political authorities do not relinquish active participation in the negotiations and they ordinarily continue to exert considerable influence on the military campaign. The military leader in such operations thus finds himself limited to certain lines of action as to the strategy and even as to the tactics of the campaign.
These are just some highlights from a 492 page book.
Regards
Mike
Not sure if Coin is stragety
Not sure if COIN is stragety but I disagree with the flipant tone and much of the content of Gray's article:
Quote:
(for example, war allegedly changing its nature;
or human behavior suddenly, post–Cold War,
reflecting the benign consequences of a normative
revolution that denies repression as an
effective domestic policy option, and suchlike
attractive fantasies)
That is not an "atractive fantasy", that is a political reality. The current post-cold war world actively engaging in tirals at the Hague for political leaders who commit war crimes. Yes, currently those are only the leaders of weak countries, but it is a change.
It is a change in the political landscape that began in Britain about 400 years ago and spread to Holand and the United States and to France. Ultimately, the Western way of democratic poitics is being imposed on the rest of the world weather they like it or not. The reality remains that using "repression as an effective domestic [or military] polcy" is the fantasy.
War has not changed but politics has. War is only now catching up. COIN is a manifestation of that reality, however you decide to classify it.
Thinking and Writing About COIN
Thinking and Writing About COIN
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Could it be looked at another way?
Quote:
Perhaps, but I still see our recent concern with population-centric warfare as a result of a shift in thinking away from the key leaders to whom the population owes a duty to the individual members of society who WE believe hold the real political power. It is not the world that has changed ... or war ... it is the way we think about where political power emanates has changed.
I think our recent concern with population-centric warfare is deeply confused on this point. We want to increase the legitimacy of a government by improving governance and have used, in part, examples from imperial small wars (the perfect example of retaining a status-quo running against a certain tide of history, people didn't want to be colonized and providing better services wasn't going to change anything in the end.) So, what aspect of power are we really strengthening or thinking about? Chicken and egg, the population versus the representatives.
So critics of pop-COIN (and you say this too in a different way) are basically saying, "you are assuming you know why people fight in every situation. They are unhappy that their current government doesn't do X, Y or Z so we will do it or teach them to do it.")
PS: The other assumption is that the majority of people are "noncommitted" and need to be wooed, so to speak. And of course, there is the old argument about how and when to provide security while doing the governance improving.
What troubles me is that the military seems to sometimes confuse describing historical trends with "how to think about doctrine." But I'm an outsider and often get things wrong on the first go. Small Wars! COIN! 4GW! Non-State Actors! Conventional War vs the New Way of Doing War! AirSea Battle! The buzziness of selling an idea often obscures the idea.
MCoE Playing Role in COIN Doctrine Revision
MCoE Playing Role in COIN Doctrine Revision
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