Counterinsurgency Education Request

[SWJED]

Would appreciate any thoughts on the following RFI from a Marine:

... I've done a good deal of COIN study and a little practical application in Iraq. As I was thinking through how to design a regimental HQ's PME program for an upcoming deployment, it became clear to me that I have no idea how to teach COIN.

I can teach TTP's (VCP, counter IED, etc.), but HQ's personnel above the company don't really do TTP's except as personal protective measures while traveling about. We can also train COC battle drills, but using MERC Chat to pass word of a TIC or downed aircraft isn't COIN either. We need to do these types of events, but what I am aiming at for this project is education rather than training.

Power point classes that I've seen are also only marginally useful. Because each situation is so different, there are few enduring principles that always apply. Slides with LOO's and pillars are so abstract that I don't think Marines internalize much from them.

I think reading is the key, but that reading needs to be reinforced by action to generate vicarious experience. Therefore I want to explore some sort of case study method which allows us to analyze situations in their historical context and then use that experience to reach some group synthesis about how to do COIN at the Regt. Level. My hope was that there were some ready made games out there that could be used as a training tool to facilitate this. For instance, read a book about Algeria. Play a game about Algeria. Something along those lines. I am open to any ideas that anyone may have.

Thanks in advance...

[selil]

Sounds like y'all need a little tools called education modeling theory. Use of a model (scenario, concept, idea, strategy, tactic) to create knowledge (big K) using game theory and such for the mechanism. I know that isn't "exactly" what he was asking, but as he was tossing away mechanisms (power point, loo(?), and such) I'm reading a need for deriving knowledge. Like most people he thinks education is transmission/communication tools, and not the learning/modeling tools. Remove the TLA's from the post and I'd make some real swings if needed.

[slapout9]

Ok Dave I give up.... what is the Catapultam......stuff on your signature line?

[selil]

Something about flinging stones at you?

[USA&USMC_COIN_Center]

Come on over to COIN.ARMY.MIL. Go to the knowledge center (Sharepoint or AKO) and download the COIN Leader Workshop. It details lots about performing in the COIN environment independant of OIF or OEF, and may meet your needs, along with many other tools.

PM or email coin@conus.army.mil with questions.

MAJ Niel Smith
USA & USMC Counterinsurgency Center
Combined Arms Center
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

[SteveMetz]

Come on over to COIN.ARMY.MIL. Go to the knowledge center (Sharepoint or AKO) and download the COIN Leader Workshop. It details lots about performing in the COIN environment independant of OIF or OEF, and may meet your needs, along with many other tools.

PM or email coin@conus.army.mil with questions.

MAJ Niel Smith
USA & USMC Counterinsurgency Center
Combined Arms Center
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

I have a somewhat out of the box suggestion. I'm currently reading Jeremey Weinstein, Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence . This is based on very detailed field research on three insurgencies: Uganda, Mozambique, and Peru. It has almost nothing to do with counterinsurgency, but offers great insights into the insurgement movements. You might draw the case studies and out and pose the question of how your peeps might have organized a counterinsurgency campaign had they been called on to do so.

Here's the downside: it's a very academic work, so can be tough reading, especially the conceptual parts. But you don't really need those, just the case studies.