Recent Publications

Op-Ed: Not Your Grandfather’s Insurgency — Criminal, Spiritual, and Plutocratic
February 20, 2014 — Dr. Robert J. Bunker The U.S. Army is facing both ongoing and projected austere economic times with deep troop and budget cuts. As a result, a concomitant rise in soul searching over the Army’s “strategic Landpower” contribution to national defense is increasingly evident. This is a natural and expected occurrence for a Service that has been in the... MORE

State Collapse, Insurgency, and Counterinsurgency: Lessons from Somalia
November 14, 2013 — Author: Dr J Peter Pham View the Executive SummaryFor more than 2 decades, Somalia has been the prime example of a collapsed state, resisting multiple attempts to reconstitute a central government, with the current internationally-backed regime of the “Federal Republic of Somalia” struggling just to maintain its hold on the capital and the... MORE

War and Insurgency in the Western Sahara
May 13, 2013 — Author: Geoffrey Jensen View the Executive SummaryAt a crucial crossroads between Africa and Europe, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and the “Arab World” and the West, Morocco has long had a special place in U.S. diplomacy and strategic planning. Since September 11, 2001, Morocco’s importance to the United States has only increased, and the... MORE

Russia’s Homegrown Insurgency: Jihad in the North Caucasus
October 1, 2012 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank The three papers offered in this monograph provide a detailed analysis of the insurgency and counterinsurgency campaigns being conducted by Islamist rebels against Russia in the North Caucasus. This conflict is Russia’s primary security threat, but it has barely registered on Western minds and is hardly reported in the... MORE

Cover for Russia's Homegrown Insurgency: Jihad in the North Caucasus

Drug Trafficking, Violence, and Instability
April 1, 2012 — Authors: Dr Vanda Felbab-Brown, Dr Phil Williams Although challenges posed by various kinds of violent armed groups initially appear highly diverse and unrelated to one another, in fact they all reflect the increasing connections between security and governance and, in particular, the relationship between poor governance and violent armed groups... MORE

Cover for Drug Trafficking, Violence, and Instability

Resolving Insurgencies
June 1, 2011 — Author: Dr Thomas R Mockaitis Understanding how insurgencies may be brought to a successful conclusion is vital to military strategists and policymakers. This study examines how past insurgencies have ended and how current ones may be resolved. Four ways in which insurgencies have ended are identified. Clear-cut victories for either the government... MORE

Some of the Best Weapons for Counterinsurgents Do Not Shoot
October 1, 2010 — Author: Maj Gen Eric T Olson Even under the best circumstances, reconstruction in counterinsurgency is a difficult endeavor. The most critical tasks are numerous and complex. Many participating agencies must undertake missions that fall well out of their existing core competencies or operate in environments that are completely unfamiliar to them... MORE

Cover for Some of the Best Weapons for Counterinsurgents Do Not Shoot

Counternarcotics Operations in Afghanistan: The COIN of the Realm
April 1, 2010 — Author: COL Louis H Jordan Jr In this Op-Ed style document, COL Louis Jordan discusses the narcotics industry in Afghanistan—calling it what it is—a commercial enterprise, which is exceedingly important because it provides strength to the insurgency while at the same time keeping the Afghan government weak by fueling instability and corruption... MORE

Transnational Insurgencies and the Escalation of Regional Conflict: Lessons for Iraq and Afghanistan
March 1, 2010 — Author: Dr Idean Salehyan Many insurgents groups benefit from sanctuaries in neighboring countries where they are relatively safe from state security forces. These transnational insurgencies complicate traditional counterinsurgency operations in significant ways. Most importantly, transnational insurgencies have the potential to spark conflicts... MORE

YouTube War: Fighting in a World of Cameras in Every Cell Phone and Photoshop on Every Computer
November 1, 2009 — Author: Dr Cori E Dauber Terrorist attacks today are often media events in a second sense: information and communication technologies have developed to such a point that these groups can film, edit, and upload their own attacks within minutes of staging them, whether the Western media are present or not. In this radically new information... MORE

Iraq: Strategic Reconciliation, Targeting, and Key Leader Engagement
September 1, 2009 — Author: Capt Jeanne F Hull Discussion of Key Leader Engagements (KLE) as a nonlethal option for countering insurgent organizations. Outreach to insurgent organizations through KLE can be both an economy of force measure and, in some circumstances, could be more effective than engaging insurgent organizations with lethal force. The challenge with... MORE

Criminals, Militias, and Insurgents: Organized Crime in Iraq
July 1, 2009 — Author: Dr Phil Williams Dr. Williams looks in detail at major criminal activities, including the theft, diversion, and smuggling of oil, the kidnapping of both Iraqis and foreigners, extortion, car theft, and the theft and smuggling of antiquities. He also considers the critical role played by corruption in facilitating and strengthening organized... MORE