This is the UK Afghan Coin Centre's reading list:

AFGHAN COIN CENTRE RECOMMENDED READING LIST

Introduction

1. There is now a wealth of literature focussing on Afghanistan and the Taliban, insurgencies and counterinsurgencies. This Recommended Reading List aims to highlight those that the Afghan COIN Centre considers to be the most useful for individuals with limited time preparing for deployment. As such, the books are listed in priority order in each thematic area.

On Afghanistan



Ahmed Rashid, Taleban: The Power of Militant Islam in Afghanistan and Beyond, London: I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2010 and Descent into Chaos, London: Penguin, 2009. Rashid is one of the leading writers on the situation in South-West Asia. Well-connected in Afghanistan and Pakistan, his book Taleban, was the first really authoritative and readable account of its rise and subsequent removal from power. Descent into Chaos provides a provocative assessment of the region and the causes of and possible outcomes of instability.

Antonio Giustozzi (ed), Decoding the New Taliban, London: C. Hurst & Co, 2009. Giustozzi builds on the success of his book The Laptop, Koran and the Kalashnikov to edit this timely book providing a detailed insight into the ‘New Taliban’ via a series of case studies across Afghanistan and Pakistan. Contributors include David Kilcullen, Thomas Ruttig and Giustozzi himself.

Martin McCauley, Afghanistan and Central Asia: A Short History, London: Longman, 2002. McCauley draws on his vast knowledge of the region and its history to provide a clear and highly readable account of Afghanistan and the other Central Asian republics from their medieval pasts to the unpredictable present. He examines the rise of militant Islam and its impact on the region, the push and pull of global economics and politics, and possibilities for stability in an inherently unstable part of the world.

Sarah Chayes, The Punishment of Virtue, Walking the Frontline of the War on Terror With a Woman Who Has Made it Her Home, London: Portabello Books Ltd, 2007. This excellent book provides a detailed insight into the Afghan mindset as well as that of the Taliban. Chayes examines the Afghan in an affectionate and understanding manner. It is an excellent source for troops deploying to work closely with the ANSF in a partnering capacity.

On Insurgency and Counterinsurgency


AFM Volume 1, Part 10, Countering Insurgency, January 2010. This is the core text and all personnel deploying on a COIN operation must be familiar with it and commanders even more so. It is the conceptual bedrock for the conduct of COIN operations.
JDP 3-40, Security and Stabilisation: The Military Contribution, November 2009. This Joint Doctrine Publication sets the strategic context for the military contribution to Stability Operations which includes the COIN campaign in Afghanistan. Commanders and planning staff at Battle Group level and above must be familiar with its content.

David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Kilcullen argues a classical approach to COIN but sets it in a contemporary context. It is highly readable and Kilcullen makes full use of his operational experience to bring the hypothesis to life.

John Mackinlay, The Insurgent Archipelago, London: Hurst & Company, 2009. Mackinlay’s careful analysis of the contemporary insurgent, and his thesis of post-Maoist, information age, religiously motivated insurgency is the most compelling British academic publication since Kitson. His arguments, particularly in the last third of the book, are provocative and presented in a lively, very readable style.

Frank Kitson, Bunch of Five, London: Faber &Faber, 1977. Bunch of Five is the more readable, arguably more interesting sequel to the comprehensive but inevitably academic Low Intensity Operations (1972). Kitson explains, using his own extensive experience, why low-level, bottom-up intelligence is so crucial to successful COIN.

Sir Robert Thompson, Defeating Communist Insurgency: The Lessons of Malaya and Vietnam, New York, NY: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966. Delete the word ‘communist’ from Thompson’s classic analysis, and his arguments are as relevant and applicable today as they were nearly fifty years ago: politics, law and legitimacy, planning, intelligence, strategic communications, and security operations to protect the population. His principles still have a profound effect on COIN theory.

Thomas Rid and Thomas Keaney (eds), Understanding Counterinsurgency: Doctrine, Operations and Challenges, London: Routledge, 2010. Rid has collected essays by the leading writers in the field to examine how thinking about COIN has developed in the West, what COIN means to the armed services and indigenous forces, and the challenges COIN faces: governance, culture, ethics, information operations, civil-military integration and time.

Daniel Marston and Carter Malkasian (eds), Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare, Oxford: Osprey, April 2008. Marston and Malkasian present expertly written, succinct analyses of thirteen crucial counter-insurgency campaigns: Afghanistan today, Iraq, Ireland 1919-21, the US in the Philippines and Vietnam, the French in Algeria and Indo-China, the British totems of Malaya and Northern Ireland and its nadir in Aden, Rhodesia 1962-80, and the Israeli response to the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Tony Jeapes, SAS Secret War, London: William Kimber, 1980, republished HarperCollins, 2000. Although not as historically detailed as John Akehurst’s We Won A War, Jeapes describes the SAS operation to raise and train the Firqa. His insights into the cross-discipline approach to civil and military development, PSYOPS and the tribal dimension of the campaign are of direct relevance to operations in Afghanistan.

The US Dimension

US Department of the Army, Field Manual 3-24 – Counterinsurgency, Washington, DC: Headquarters Department of the Army, December 2006. Commanders deploying on COIN operations need to know what the manual which prompted such a widespread reform of COIN, and so influenced commanders in the US and British Armies, actually says, and how it differs from the UK AFM on COIN.

Linda Robinson, Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq, New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2008. Robinson’s book details Gen Petraeus, the US Army’s COIN revolution, and the Surge in Iraq. It is a lively, accurate and very well-informed account which brings the turning point of the war in Iraq, and the practical challenges of ‘Securing the Population’ to life.

Thomas Ricks, The Gamble: General Petraeus and the Untold Story of the American Surge In Iraq, 2006-2008, London: Allen Lane, 2009. The Gamble is a balanced counterpoint to his previous book Fiasco. He explains how the case for the Surge was developed in 2006 and, against all evidence and advice, was accepted and then implemented successfully in 2007. He focuses on the central role of Gen Petraeus and his leadership.

Further Guidance

16. Further reference material and guidance can be found at the Afghan COIN Centre Webpage on the Army Knowledge Exchange (AKX) at the link below or direct from the Afghan COIN Centre via the contact details on the AKX page.



Afghan COIN Centre
LWC, Warminster