Publication

This US government guide discusses how to best fight an insurgency, commenting on contemporary thought, historical knowledge and hard-won practice from the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. It examines theory and principles of counterinsurgency (COIN), identifies components of a COIN strategy and reviews the roles of different actors involved. Subsequently, it looks at the issues of assessment and planning. The paper concludes that effective counterinsurgency requires multi-faceted and integrated operations that apply civilian and military capabilities across information, security, political and economic functional areas.