Tactics, tactics, tactics...
Steve--
I'm with you on listing things like PhDs as desirable - it does provide "tactical" flexibility. But I don't hold with a CPO telling an academic organization what it can and cannot do in terms of how it lists its academic requirements. I am particularly uncomfortable when a CPO does so with respect to legislation that was designed to give the DOD academic institutions the same hiring flexibility that civilian academic institutions have and to make those academic positions competitive with "elite" civilian universities.:)
Cheers
John
Narrative in counterinsurgency (FM 3-24, ¶1-76)
Greetings, all. Paragraph 1-76 in the new Counterinsurgency field manual discusses the role of narrative (storytelling) in the development and maintenance of insurgencies. "Stories about a community's history provide models of how actions and consequences are linked. Stories are often the basis for strategies and actions, as well as for interpreting others' intentions."
Can anyone point me to any publications that have specifically discussed this topic (the role of narratives in insurgent and counterinsurgent strategies)? I am not a specialist in the military literature, so there may well be a famous ten volume treatise on the subject that everyone else already knows -- if so, I'd be glad to be directed to it.
Many thanks.
Bob
Counterinsurgency and the Fast Ticking Clock
I was reading this story from the LA Times:
Quote:
Iraq strategy geared to U.S. pullout
Expecting a timeline soon, the military shifts main focus to Sunni-led Al Qaeda, a move it says will calm Shiite militias too.
By Julian Barnes
Times Staff Writer
June 28, 2007
BAGHDAD — U.S. commanders plan a summer of stepped-up offensives against Al Qaeda in Iraq as they tailor strategy to their expectation that Congress soon will impose a timeline for drawing down U.S. forces here.
The emphasis on Al Qaeda, described by commanders in interviews here this week, marks a shift in focus from Shiite Muslim militias and death squads in Baghdad. It reflects the belief of some senior officers in Iraq that the militias probably will reduce attacks once it becomes clear that a U.S. pullout is on the horizon. By contrast, they believe Al Qaeda in Iraq could be emboldened by a withdrawal plan and must be confronted before one is in place...
That led me to wonder: Do we need to add a second major criterion when we develop a strategy for counterinsurgency support?
Here's what I mean. Our current strategy relies on effectiveness as the major criterion. We attempt to do what will be effective on the ground. But, perhaps, we need to give equal weight to political feasibility.
We all know that the clock is ticking whenever the United States becomes involved in counterinsurgency support. But it ticks at different rates depending on the nature of the conflict, the extent of American interests in the country facing an insurgency, and a range of domestic political factors.
Our current strategy and doctrine assume a slow ticking clock. Perhaps it would be better if strategy and doctrine explicitly indicated that military operations need to be different when facing a fast ticking clock.
A description of narrative.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RJO
Greetings, all. Paragraph 1-76 in the new Counterinsurgency field manual discusses the role of narrative (storytelling) in the development and maintenance of insurgencies. "Stories about a community's history provide models of how actions and consequences are linked. Stories are often the basis for strategies and actions, as well as for interpreting others' intentions."
Can anyone point me to any publications that have specifically discussed this topic (the role of narratives in insurgent and counterinsurgent strategies)? I am not a specialist in the military literature, so there may well be a famous ten volume treatise on the subject that everyone else already knows -- if so, I'd be glad to be directed to it.
Many thanks.
Bob
Bob,
Maybe I can help you and bring my own contribution to this exchange. In case where you are starting from scraps about the purpose and role of narrative, then I begin in introducing you to some fundamentals.
Imagine yourself as the CEO of a car maker, for a while. You want to sell a new car you designed and your plant shall begin to mass manufacture it in a few months. So, with the help of your advertising agency you start working on ideas to sell this new model. But your problem it is not very different of the others your main competitors manufacture. The reason stems from the fact that your marketing department aimed at a pool of customers likely to spend $25,000 to 29,000 for a Sedan and no more; and so your engineers couldn’t do miracles with that. All you expect from that future model is just to get a market share in this category and in this range of prices. But is this what you are going to tell to your customers?
Better not!
For, your customer would say that you are just attempting to fool them and that’s all. Is it likely that things turn to be otherwise?
No.
So, you have to tell yout customers something else if you want to convince them to buy your car, and not those of your competitors. The survival of your company depends of that. Business’ business is business, said Milton Friedman. Isn’t that so?
At some point you get the idea, at last.
You know that all your competitors import most of their parts from East Asia whereas you don’t because, for some reason of your own, you were unwilling to cut jobs and close plants.
On the basis of this fact you decide to change the name of your future car for “America;” a daring and bold decision.
Thereupon, your Marketing Manager tells you that it’s good idea, though not new, but that it will be a challenge nonetheless to goes on with that because if American people are sensible to that argument many of them hold that East Asian made cars are strong, enduring, and cheaper than American made cars.
So, to make such a strategy a successful one you’ll have to make your advertising campaign so compelling that it must take precedence over selfish considerations. You think that it is possible since Harley Davidson did it beyond all expectations in motorbike industry. Why not you?
The add your advertising agency brilliantly made shows the model America moving on a road mixed with video sequences featuring good looking American workers welding coach parts, assembling engines, putting a shiny air filter cover on which is stamped in a calligraphic style the name “America”. At some point we may distinguish a wavering American flag mixed with another sequence showing a huge crowd of enthusiast and smiling employees posing on the parking lot facing the headquarters of your company. The rich sound of the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra is covered by a deep male voice entertaining the listener about the legendary American know-how and the spirit of constant innovation your company expresses in all domains, and so on and on.
Ten years latter.
You are alone in your office remembering your bygone angst, the first days on the road of the America, the huge and enthusiast media coverage, the broadcasted angry protestations of one your main challengers.
Sales timidly started the first year, before it literally skyrocketed from May on during the second year. It was a success you even didn’t dream of. You were just in need to introduce a new model on the market; and you made your company an American symbol. Around the world countless people wear tee-shirts marked with your company’s name. You published your autobiography last year and it is a best seller.
Good marketing and good for the image of the company! Your are a symbol of American entrepreneurship and patriotism. Though things happened accidentally you yielded at some point to the conclusion that it couldn't be that accidental. Today you truly believe what you said ten years ago and you are proud of your company the same way your loyal and patriot customers are to own a car it produces.
Well, I put an end to my fiction here.
That’s narrative. That’s why it is done for, and it works in politics and religion almost exactly as it works in business.
No matter how aware we may be of the deceptiveness of narrative, we all need it at some point. For, the world around us would seem gray, sad and cynical; purposeless, in sum.
Carl Yung is right when he stresses the importance of religion in our mind and for our mental balance. Personally, I prefer calling it a “need to believe in something that is not necessarily rational.” We need landmarks; especially in our complex world of today. Lenine said in jest that “religion is the opium of the people” but he missed to acknowledge that political ideology alike.
No matter how skeptic and disillusioned we may be; we all are looking for a narrative when we don’t have one already. Nothing in this world is done without it, from mere cheese to clothes, to sodas, to elections, to war.
Now, while talking about “counter narrative,” you don’t need to have much imagination to find what might retort the challengers of this hypothetic car builder. Possibly, they would attempt to fuel discontent among employees in its plants through bribery and manipulation of the labor unions. Possibly they would buy a lot of advertising space to some publication in order to influence their opinion and get them criticizing the performances of the America. Possibly they would manage to find a NGO willing to go to court because the company that builds the America infringed rules of respect toward the American flag, etc. In sum, they would attempt to damage the image and reputation of the company.
In order to afford the subject of narrative in politics and religion per se, I find as practical as purposeful to take a look at a comment relating to religion and insurgency I recently wrote on another blog; I name The Captain’s Journal. In this comment, I explain the purpose and role of narrative in mass movements and insurgency. Since it is my description of the role of narrative, it goes without saying that any critics expressed by the enlightened Council members of the SWJ are welcome.
You can find the integral version of this text (numbered #11), as taken in its context, at the following link:
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/...ave-kilcullen/
Another of my comments, numbered #16, I wrote on this same webpage continues on narrative.
So much for the separation of Church and State..
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MaxL
Rob,
Mind, those terms should be to the effect of 'Jesus told us to help the poor and downtrodden even at great expense'
I wonder what the large number of non-christian Americans would think about this as a justification for national policy or strategic planning? You wouldn't last 10 seconds in Australia trying it.
Thankfully, I have never seen anyone successfully argue a conops in our Army or security policy establishment on the basis that "Jesus would want me to do it". Our mob tend to be a bit secular and stick to the more mundane, rather than the divine... you know, good old fashion simple things like sound military strategic planning principles.