Good books on COIN?

[Kevin23]

I know I maybe opening a can of worms here, but could anyone recommend some goods books on COIN, other then the more commonly known titles like the US Army/Marine Corps, and David Kilcullen's Accidental Guerrilla.

Overall though, I'm kind of at a loss of what I should add to my bookshelf when looking at the professional and other reading lists. So I was hoping someone could make some suggestions?


Thank you,

[jcustis]

Adobe Acrobat is my friend. I have the book titles that you reference, and then some, but I still feel drawn to the shorter texts (thesis papers, RAND studies, etc.) posted in the reference library on .pdf. I can digest several topics in a weekend and gain a wider grasp of discussion points that way.

Granted, they tend to be very topical, but most of the good ones reference core material and points made in the classic texts anyway, so I tend to get a dose of what those arguments are without having to grind through several hundred pages of the same points, just varied at times by the vignette chosen. Your mileage will certainly vary, but have you printed out a few of those and dived into them?

[Schmedlap]

I look at it this way. COIN is a military operation to defeat an insurgency. Most of the recommended literature today seems to be geared towards (a) understanding the insurgency or (b) figuring out how to combat it. I'd say the literature on those two angles is pretty exhaustive, which begs the question of why we continue to suck so bad at it.

I read through Kilcullen's book the first weekend that it came out and it, in my opinion, was 200+ pages of common sense backed up with anecdotes and citations. The whole time that I read reading it, I was waiting for the punch line. It never arose. I was nodding in agreement throughout, "yeah, we do this, yeah it results in that, yeah it's an annoying paradox... and...?"

I think Nagl was starting down the right path in Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife. Many view that book as a history piece on Vietnam and Malaysia. It was actually a book about how Armies adapt. Being perhaps among the first to tackle that topic using contemporary case studies, it surely has some errors or shortcomings (unlikely that someone is going to get it right on the first try). Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that many have picked up where he left off or spent much time revisiting the idea of how the Army adapted. Most of the criticism, praise, and follow-up has been focused on the historical analysis, even though it was not history book. I would recommend books that pick up where he left off. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any. All of the bright ideas on COIN are neat, but I think the biggest obstacle is our inability to apply them. We need to crack that nut first.

[M-A Lagrange]

I will sound old fathion but I would also recommand Galula and Lawrence...
Not that they are very much accurate for what is actually going on but they defenitively help to understand where COIN comes from.

Looking into the Australian COIN manual for references is also a good idea.

[John T. Fishel]

First, one could go to Richard D. Downie's Learning from Conflict which is the source of Nagl's theoretical approach. Together, the two books provide asn interesting starting point for looking at why the US Army doesn't learn. In a similar vein, my 1995 article, "Little Wars, Small Wars, LIC, OOTW, The GAP, and Things That Go Bump in the Night" in Low Intensity conflict & Law Enforcement (Frank Cass journal now owned by Taylor & francis and incorporated in Small Wars & Insurgencies) addresses the same issue. (sorry, the article is not in digital form)

I'd recommend my recent book with Max Manwaring, Uncomfortable wars Revisited which is part of a series that began with Uncomfortable Wars, Low Intensity conflict: Old Wine in New Bottles, Gray Area Phenomena, Managing contemporary Conflict, and others. See also Max's SSI monographs.

There is no shortage of good books and articles about COIN dating back at least to C. E. Callwell's Small Wars (first published in 1896). Of real interest, is why we keep relearning the same lessons - is it really Groundhog Day? That is the issue that Nagl, Downie, and I addressed. Part of the answer as to why it is so difficult to fully internalize COIN lies in the arguments of Gian Gentile who, articulately, expresses the traditional Army view.

Cheers

JohnT

[William F. Owen]

That is the issue that Nagl, Downie, and I addressed. Part of the answer as to why it is so difficult to fully internalize COIN lies in the arguments of Gian Gentile who, articulately, expresses the traditional Army view.

Sorry but ,in my opinion, that is just not true, and grossly misrepresents Gian Gentile's position.

His is not the traditional Army view by a very long shot.
Gian Gentile understand so called COIN a great deal better than the "WOW COIN" generation. He just does not buy into the "Lady Di Way of War" that keeps getting churned out. Same with Justin Kelly, and same with me.

COIN is warfare, not social work, or nation building. The problem people have with Gian is he keeps calling them out on their poorly formed opinions and sloppy arguments.

[MikeF]

I will sound old fathion but I would also recommand Galula and Lawrence...
Not that they are very much accurate for what is actually going on but they defenitively help to understand where COIN comes from.

Looking into the Australian COIN manual for references is also a good idea.

If you read Galula/Lawrence and add Sir Robert Thompson, then you've hit the trifecta.

Mike

[Steve Blair]

I think Nagl was starting down the right path in Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife. Many view that book as a history piece on Vietnam and Malaysia. It was actually a book about how Armies adapt. Being perhaps among the first to tackle that topic using contemporary case studies, it surely has some errors or shortcomings (unlikely that someone is going to get it right on the first try). Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that many have picked up where he left off or spent much time revisiting the idea of how the Army adapted. Most of the criticism, praise, and follow-up has been focused on the historical analysis, even though it was not history book. I would recommend books that pick up where he left off. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any. All of the bright ideas on COIN are neat, but I think the biggest obstacle is our inability to apply them. We need to crack that nut first.

Bickel's Mars Learning, although it doesn't follow up and Nagl since it came out prior to his work, does deal to a great degree with learning and applying lessons from COIN campaigns (although it's dealing with the Corps and covers the interwar period). Most of the stuff about Vietnam deals with either the COIN stuff or the major unit actions, and sadly I can't offhand point to a single work that deals with the applications of lessons learned and preserving those lessons in more depth than Nagl did. There are some from previous conflicts, though. Crossing the Deadly Ground springs to mind, although it does have a tight tactical focus. I'm sure there are others that just aren't coming to mind at the moment.

[Kevin23]

Adobe Acrobat is my friend. I have the book titles that you reference, and then some, but I still feel drawn to the shorter texts (thesis papers, RAND studies, etc.) posted in the reference library on .pdf. I can digest several topics in a weekend and gain a wider grasp of discussion points that way.

Granted, they tend to be very topical, but most of the good ones reference core material and points made in the classic texts anyway, so I tend to get a dose of what those arguments are without having to grind through several hundred pages of the same points, just varied at times by the vignette chosen. Your mileage will certainly vary, but have you printed out a few of those and dived into them?

I've read many of the thesis's/reports that have been posted on here. I've also been meaning to print out some of these, but that will have to wait until after break to do when I'm back at school.

[outletclock]

"The Logic of Violence in Civil War" exudes brilliance.

Regards,
OC

[Cavguy]

Kevin,

Reading lists by nature play to the reader's biases.

I personally recommend reading anything by Frank Kitson on insurgency, will open some new thinking for you ... I also recommend, if you can find it, "The Centurions" by Larteguy for fiction - the "Once and Eagle" of COIN ...

I have found Abu M's reading list comprehensive and full of good books.


http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawam...ding-list.html

Counterinsurgency Reading List
October 2007
(updated November 2007)
(updated March 2008)
(updated May 2009)

The Bare Bones Essentials

David Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice
David Kilcullen, "28 Articles", Military Review, May-June 2006
Kalev Sepp, "Best and Worst Practices in COIN", Military Review, May-June 2005

Intermediate Reading

Colonial Era
Robert Bateman, "Lawrence and his Message"
C.E. Callwell, Small Wars
John Cann, Counterinsurgency in Africa: The Portuguese Way of War 1961-1974
Carl von Clausewitz, On War
Bernard Fall, The Street without Joy
David Galula, Pacification in Algeria: 1956-1958
Tony Geraghty, The Irish War
Charles Gwynn, Imperial Policing
Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962
Frank Kitson, Gangs and Counter-Gangs
Robert Komer, Bureaucracy Does its Thing
Andrew Krepinevich, The Army and Vietnam
John Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie
Robert Taber, War of the Flea
Robert Thompson, Defeating Communist Insurgency
Roger Trinquier, Modern Warfare
Mao Tse-Tung, On Guerrilla Warfare
Bing West, The Village

Modern Day
Ralph Baker, "The Decisive Weapon", Military Review, May-June 2006
David Barno, “Fighting ‘The Other War’: Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, 2003-2005,” Military Review, September-October 2007
Stephen Biddle, “Seeing Baghdad, Thinking Saigon,” Foreign Affairs, March-April 2006
Burgoyne & Marckwardt, The Defense of Jisr al-Doreaa
Peter Chiarelli, "Winning the Peace", Military Review, July-August 2005
Nigel Alwyn Foster, "Changing the Army for COIN Operations", Military Review, November-December 2005
Les Grau, The Bear Went Over the Mountain
T.X. Hammes, The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century
T.X. Hammes, “Fourth Generation Evolves, Fifth Emerges,” Military Review, May-June 2007
Hecker & Rid, War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age
Chris Hickey, "Principles and Priorities for Training in Iraq", Military Review, March-April 2007
Frank Hoffman, "Hybrid Threats"
David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla
David Kilcullen, "Anatomy of a Tribal Revolt"
David Kilcullen, “Counterinsurgency Redux,” Survival, Winter, 2006
John Kizley, "Learning About Counterinsurgency", Military Review, March-April 2007
Sean MacFarland and Niel Smith, "Anbar Awakens," Military Review, March-April 2008
Marston & Malkasian, Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare
H.R. McMaster, “On War: Lessons to be Learned.” Survival, February-March 2008
Steven Metz, Rethinking Insurgency
Elizabeth Rubin, "Battle Company Is Out There"
Rupert Smith, The Utility of Force
Various, FM 3-24, "Counterinsurgency"

Advanced Reading

Hannah Arendt, On Revolution
Hannah Arendt, On Violence
Robert Asprey, War in the Shadows
Robert Bates, Prosperity and Violence
Jarret M. Brachman and William F. McCants, "Stealing Al-Qaeda's Playbook," CTC Report, February 2006
Scott A. Cuomo and Brian J. Donlon, "Training a 'Hybrid' Warrior," Marine Corps Gazette
Loup Francart, Maitriser la violence
Robert M. Gates, "Beyond Guns and Steel: Reviving the Nonmilitary Instruments of American Power"
Antonio Giustozzi, Koran, Kalashnikov, and the Laptop: The Neo Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan
John Bagot Glubb, War in the Desert
Daniel Helmer, "Flipside of the COIN: Israel’s Lebanese Incursion Between 1982-2000"
Stathis Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil Wars
Alan B. Krueger, What Makes a Terrorist
Mark Lichbach, The Rebel’s Dilemma
Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993
James Scott, Moral Economy of the Peasant
Frederic M. Wehrey, “A Clash of Wills: Hizballah’s Psychological Campaign Against Israel in South Lebanon.”
Jeremy Weinstein, Inside Rebellion: Politics of Insurgent Violence

Fiction

Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Jean Larteguy, The Centurions
Leon Uris, Trinity

Films

The Battle of Algiers
Go Tell The Spartans
The Wind that Shakes the Barley

[davidbfpo]

Cited in an article on Lt.Col. Gukeisen, serving in Afghanistan:

His personal list of "Most Influential COIN Items" includes a collection of Afghan poetry, a study of chaos theory, and Hollywood films such as "Red Dawn," a fantasy about American guerrillas fighting a Soviet invasion of the United States. From John Maynard Keynes, the visionary British economist, he drew the idea that by "jump-starting the economy via an initial stimulus you create a cascade.

From:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34494015...central_asia//

As an aside I'd look at non-Western / non-Imperial era COIN, where all too frequently there was not an abundance of resources; please don't ask me for examples it's just a thought.

OK, on reflection (happens on holiday), try the Burmese campaign since 1947 against the hill tribes; Indonesia in East Timor; South Africa and yes, Rhodesia.

[Wargames Mark]

I know I maybe opening a can of worms here, but could anyone recommend some goods books on COIN, other then the more commonly known titles like the US Army/Marine Corps, and David Kilcullen's Accidental Guerrilla.

Overall though, I'm kind of at a loss of what I should add to my bookshelf when looking at the professional and other reading lists. So I was hoping someone could make some suggestions?


Thank you,

I strongly recommend starting with books on insurgency written by insurgents or those who worked or lived with them:

The Al Qaeda Reader (compilation of translated AQ writings)
War of the Flea, by Robert Taber
On Guerrilla Warfare, by Mao Tse-Tung
Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla, by Carlos Marighella
Guerrilla Warfare, by Ernesto (Che) Guevara

(Some of the authors I listed are considered to have been nitwits (Guevara, for instance). However, their books are still insights into how insurgents have thought about insurgency.)

Additionally, I recommend reading about the different types of insurgencies. There s a lot of variation in approach and the history of insurgency over the past 100 years is more diverse than is commonly acknowledged. The Army used to publish some material that really broke things down well, though it was mostly focused on various flavors of communism. Once a person understands why an insurgent organization does what it does the way that it does it, then that person is much better prepared to defeat that insurgency.