All policing is, IMO, "some form of COIN." Mostly preventative COIN, but preventing conflicts is far better than fighting them. When prevention fails, however, one must be prepared to deal with increased illegality and violence with whatever group might be action out, without sliding into a mindset or family of approaches that is detrimental to that ongoing prevention mission across the larger populace.

In general we do a pretty good job of this at home in our policing efforts, it is when we go to foreign countries and call it "COIN" that we tend to overly militarize and "warify" the problem; and adopt approaches that produce tactical success, but at a tremendous cost in terms of the sovereignty and legitimacy of the very government we seek to assist.

As to this particular list, I see nothing wrong with it on its face, but would caution anyone who is merely handed the list without any additional training and instruction, that the difference between success and failure is in the fine nuance of how such things are approached, and fine nuance is hard when just going off a checklist (or some doctrinal manual, for that matter).

"Legitimacy" for example, is crucial, but this is a word that has two broad meanings, and too often we apply the wrong one. Below is my introductory comments for a class I gave on Legitimacy in Irregular warfare yesterday:

"The most important thing, is to understand what type of war one is in."- Clausewitz.

Conventional war is a contest for legal legitimacy. Irregular warfare, on the other hand, is a contest for political, or popular legitimacy.

The first is external, the second is internal.

The first can be created or destroyed by others, granted or denied, much like an honorary degree from some properly sanctioned body. And like such a degree, legal legitimacy may mean a great deal to strangers, but won't do much to impress ones friends and family at home.

The second is largely impervious to the whim or will of others. They cannot create it, nor can they destroy it. In fact, no government can create popular / political legitimacy. It is a writ from the people, and it must be earned.

Certainly police officers have legal legitimacy, but in this context what they must earn among the populace they seek to influence and understand is the political / popular brand that rests within the perceptions of the populace at hand. Tough, but cortical.

Similarly, as Mike and I have discussed several times, "rule of law" is too often treated as "I'm right and you are wrong, so do what I say and submit to my rule"; where what is really important is if the populace at hand perceives that it is treated with respect and is receiving justice under the rule of law as it is applied to them.

Good stuff. Now that we are learning to apply COIN at home, perhaps we'll learn how to apply it more in a home-like way when we go abroad...