Contextualizing Insurgency

[Dayuhan]

I'm itching for someone to take a crack at the re-emergence of the Silk Road, and its possible implications to old and new Big Games.

I haven't seen a credible argument that any such thing is happening or is likely to happen... though pursuit of that one would be a substantial thread hijack.

[AmericanPride]

Is the Afghan war a war of identity? Is it a war of national liberation? Is it a civil war? Or is all of that irrrelevant to ending the war on favorable terms? I agree with Dayuhan and Steve that the current range of conflicts has less to do with the end of the Cold War, which may helped the old system linger a little longer, than with the total collapse of the European world order over the span of 60 or so years. The problem you seem to identify is that 'strategy' cannot be effective without context. But that's true with all doctrine and theory. Battle Drill 6 (room clearance) is always the same, but it changes with the design and conditions of the real world building you are entering. So, perhaps the underlying problem isn't that counterinsurgency theory and doctrine are without context, but that they are based on unsound assumptions and priniciples.