Steve Metz has published a valuable article.

[Entropy]

As far as I can see the "New COIN" and the Stabilisation strategy in general backs you into a place where you want to act Colonial, but not actually be Colonial.

Wow, that's great Wilf, I like it!

[Hacksaw]

I read Wilf's post and went yeah that's what we're talking about...

then I saw two affirmations before I could type...

Well said, too true, over-reach???

So the big question...

Do we need a colonial-like approach in order to achieve our strategic goals? (what ever they may be, but for the sake of argument... a place to sell our goods, relative freedom from domestic attack... do we need more??)

[davidbfpo]

Hacksaw asked:

Do we need a colonial-like approach in order to achieve our strategic goals?

As a general rule no and so places like Afghanistan today are excluded.

Are there places where it could apply? Yes, at places of vital interest and probably shared by local partners. I would suggest Oman is a classic case; a place a Whitehall speaker said 'The UK will never leave, it is too vital". Sadly there are cases where it has failed, e.g. Ivory Coast.

Temporary applications? Maybe, altough I'd hesitate to use all UN missions as evidence; some UN missions have been valuable e.g. UNTAG in Namibia.

The recent Detterence thread travelled over some of this ground, especially over the threat from terrorism.

davidbfpo