Reconstruction Under Fire: Unifying Civil and Military Counterinsurgency
Abstract
this monograph presents a search for ways to improve security for civil aspects of counterinsurgency (COIN)--essential human services, political reform, physical reconstruction, economic development, and indigenous capacity-building--so that it can take place while insurgency is active and dangerous. The importance of this search lies in the fact that civilian counterinsurgency (civil COIN), when combined with military operations, can weaken insurgency. Thus, COIN as a whole is more likely to succeed if civil COIN can be performed despite insurgent violence. Alternatively, delaying civil COIN until an insurgency has been defeated by military action alone may reduce the probability that it will, in fact, be defeated. A core premise of this study, from observing Iraq and Afghanistan especially, is that there is a large and pressing need to improve security for the people, activities, and assets involved in civil COIN. A core finding of the study is that it will take more than marginal enhancements of familiar operating concepts to meet this need: It will take new thinking about how to integrate the civil and military sides of COIN--new thinking of the sort the study offers. As important, we find, in general, that the effort required to provide security for civil COIN, if done smartly, will be more than repaid in civil COIN's contribution to weakening insurgency and ending violence.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA503313
Entities
People
- Brooke S. Lawson
- David C. Gompert
- Kimberly Colloton
- Michelle Parker
- Terrence K. Kelly
Organizations
- RAND Corporation