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Rethinking Insurgency

Authored by Dr. Steven Metz.

Brief Synopsis

The U.S. military and national security community lost interest in insurgency after the end of the Cold War when other defense issues such as multinational peacekeeping and transformation seemed more pressing. With the onset of the Global War on Terror in 2001 and the ensuing involvement of the U.S. military in counterinsurgency support in Iraq and Afghanistan, insurgency experienced renewed concern in both the defense and intelligence communities. The author argues that while exceptionally important, this relearning process focused on Cold War era nationalistic insurgencies rather than the complex conflicts which characterized the post-Cold War security environment. To be successful at counterinsurgency, he contends, the U.S. military and defense community must rethink insurgency, which has profound implications for American strategy and military doctrine.

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Also by the Author/Editor:

2010 SSI Annual Strategy Conference Report "Defining War for the 21st Century"
Decisionmaking In Operation IRAQI FREEDOM: The Strategic Shift of 2007
Decisionmaking in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM: Removing Saddam Hussein by Force
COIN of the Realm: U.S. Counterinsurgency Strategy
Learning from Iraq: Counterinsurgency in American Strategy
Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in the 21st Century: Reconceputalizing Threat and Response
Security Transformation
Future War/Future Battlespace: The Strategic Role of American Landpower

View other pubs in the following categories:

Era of Persistent Conflict
Military Strategy and Policy
National Military Strategy
National Security Strategy