For today's (and likely a LOT of tomnrow's) relevance, go to this site and search for "Milestones": http://web.youngmuslims.ca/

Tons of people have actually gone to Amazon and bought this...the great thing about the site, above, it you can also get links to places where people discuss Qutb. To me, that is even more valuable than the having a book between two pieces of paper.

As someone already mentioned, RAND has a lot of free info.

Another place, obvious, but strangely not often thought of is google books:

http://books.google.com/books?q=coun...G=Search+Books

This should get you to it.

Keep in mind that books are, by nature overcome by events. Therefore, if I were you, I'd also look at online journals, magazines, and such. These are much more timely, especially for college paper purposes. If you decide to suck it up and actually BUY some books (VERY highly recommended), I'd go to Barnes and Noble right now...they were having a HUGE sale on books, and a LOT were COIN-related.

One of the problems you will constantly run into is that the entire notion of COIN--most especially these days--is constantly gainining more and more of a database. Much of it is crap...the key is to find vetted authors. So, to develop good papers and good ideas, you will need to include research on the authors who write all of this stuff.

Do not let any of this discourage you, though. Keep in mind that many of the BEST practioners of COIN (and I'm begginning to HATE that term, by the way) were not even military men. In fact, a significant amount of insight can be gained through anthropological venues...probably even BETTER than the majority of "COIN Expert" books out there.

More than anything else--IMHO--the study of insurgency is about people and societies, and NOT about military arts. In fact, many who are/were acknowledged military experst have fallen (and will continue to fall) short when confronted with an insurgency dynamics.

One final note. As you look through all of this, you will likely begin to find more and more on "irregular warfare." Don't let this distract you because you risk getting lost in endless discussions of what, exactly, that term means.

Good luck!