U.S. Counterinsurgency Doctrine: Is It Adequate to Defeat Hezbollah as a Threat Model of Future Insurgencies?
Abstract
Hezbollah has emerged as the most dangerous terrorist group in the world. It has about 25,000 active armed members and it can muster a million more in the streets. These terrorists are disciplined, highly trained, and have incredibly lethal equipment and unprecedented information operations and counterintelligence networks. This thesis will answer the primary question of whether U.S. counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine is adequate to defeat Hezbollah as a threat model of future insurgencies. Key components of this are Hezbollah and its capabilities, lessons learned by Israel as Hezbollah's most frequent opponent, and U.S. COIN doctrine itself. In the 2006 Lebanon War, Israel was defeated by Hezbollah in most of the world's eyes. Studying the failures of Israel's doctrine as it applies to Hezbollah provides a strong foundation for reviewing U.S. doctrine and can serve as a basis for evaluating whether U.S. doctrine is adequate. To evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. COIN doctrine against Hezbollah, the thesis will examine six key events from the 2006 Lebanon War. Using these six events, the author will conduct a war game in which six evaluation criteria are used to determine if U.S. COIN doctrine is adequate to defeat Hezbollah as a model of insurgent threat. The evaluation criteria were selected based on widely accepted ingredients critical to successful counterinsurgency operations and U.S. lessons learned in Iraq. If the Israeli response was effective, the author will examine whether the U.S. response is similar enough or what it is lacking to have the same effect. If Israel's response was ineffective, the author will determine what their short-comings were and whether U.S. COIN doctrine differs enough to be effective.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 12, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA502050
Entities
People
- Kellie S. Rourke
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College