Counterinsurgency Education Request

[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.

[marct]

you can take the case study methodology a step further by breaking people into teams, creating scenarios, and then having them game against each other. I've used that to good effect in teaching globalization / anti-globalization material.

[Surferbeetle]

From Wired

The Navy, it turns out, has a "Sim Iraq" in mind, too. A literal one. The service has issued a call for a developers to build "a highly interactive, PC-based Human, Social and Culture Behavioral Modeling (HSCB) simulation tool to support training for military planners for handling insurgencies, small wars, and/or emergent conflicts."

[Menning]

Having taken two COIN electives at CGSC, I recommend reading several books. We always use Galula's Counterinsurgency Theory and Practice combined with O'Neill's Insurgency and Terrorism to understand COIN theory. For a detailed look at the application of COIN principles, I'd recommend Galula's Pacification in Algeria 1956-1958. By examining Galula's four prerequisites for insurgency and O'Neill's types of insurgency, a person can already start applying COIN theory to a specific situation. Ensuing discussion involving Galula's application of COIN principles can help facilitate discussions regarding the efficacy of theory and practice in any given AOR.

As for the "gaming" element, I again return to how we do it during a short course at CGSC. Once you have the theory and principles down, encourage those involved to break down a given insurgency using the theory. One side can play the blue team and the other red, and introduce insurgent/counterinsurgent actions and how they affect the status of the fight.

Galula's Theory and Practice is a quick, digestible read and a person can pick and choose what to read from O'Neill's work if brevity is important.
One last thing, Trinquier's Modern Warfare is also a quick read that emphasizes the operational level of COIN theory and might prove useful. I hope some of this helps.

[SteveMetz]

Having taken two COIN electives at CGSC, I recommend reading several books. We always use Galula's Counterinsurgency Theory and Practice combined with O'Neill's Insurgency and Terrorism to understand COIN theory. For a detailed look at the application of COIN principles, I'd recommend Galula's Pacification in Algeria 1956-1958. By examining Galula's four prerequisites for insurgency and O'Neill's types of insurgency, a person can already start applying COIN theory to a specific situation. Ensuing discussion involving Galula's application of COIN principles can help facilitate discussions regarding the efficacy of theory and practice in any given AOR.

As for the "gaming" element, I again return to how we do it during a short course at CGSC. Once you have the theory and principles down, encourage those involved to break down a given insurgency using the theory. One side can play the blue team and the other red, and introduce insurgent/counterinsurgent actions and how they affect the status of the fight.

Galula's Theory and Practice is a quick, digestible read and a person can pick and choose what to read from O'Neill's work if brevity is important.
One last thing, Trinquier's Modern Warfare is also a quick read that emphasizes the operational level of COIN theory and might prove useful. I hope some of this helps.

I'm on a one man crusade to try and transcend the Cold War classics. It's would be like assigning books on American politics from the 1960s to a bunch of student who were going to go out and manage political campaigns.

[Cavguy]

I'm on a one man crusade to try and transcend the Cold War classics. It's would be like assigning books on American politics from the 1960s to a bunch of student who were going to go out and manage political campaigns.

Not necessairly disagreeing with you, but what short books matching the above themes (and simplicity) would you recommend instead?

Galula and Trinquier are oft mentioned because they are short, practical, and still mostly relevant.

I can think of a few insightful more recent articles, but no books with a digestable tactical/operational summary of approaching COIN.