Strategic Success Of SRI Lankan Government Against LTTE Remains Tentative Despite Military Success
Abstract
By 2009, the Sri Lankan government (SLG) established or exploited a number of conditions which allowed for a successful military campaign to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). During the final phase of the war, the SLG used brute force against the LTTE, which had matured from an insurgency into a conventional force. The SLG changed its strategy against the LTTE because political efforts and coercive tactics failed to end the war for almost thirty years. However, the SLG military success did not change the conditions or perceptions which originally caused the conflict. To some extent, the SLG has exacerbated the problem by continuing to focus on military procurement and occupation in lieu of constitutional and social services reform. The SLGs military success without a political resolution increases the likelihood that the conflict will eventually resume unless the military operational success is supplemented with a long-term strategy to reasonably appease the Tamil population.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 13, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1037670
Entities
People
- Jonathan E Ford
Organizations
- Air War College