Success in COIN: Aligning Organizational Structure With Strategy
Abstract
Currently, there is no organization specifically designed to accomplish the U.S. military strategy in counterinsurgency. This thesis uses organizational theory to assess the qualities and structure of the Organization for Community Engagement (OCE), an organization designed to accomplish the key tenets of counterinsurgency. It presents an analysis of counterinsurgency doctrine, classic and contemporary counterinsurgency theorists, current U.S. military strategy, and the environment and its application to Afghanistan as a case study. Based on that emerging strategy, the authors develop an organizational design heuristic for establishing an organization focused on the fulfillment of that strategy. They then apply the heuristic to identify and measure the contingency factors of the OCE. Applying these contingency factors to the structural configuration of the OCE, the authors propose an organizational configuration that can successfully accomplish the COIN aspects of the military strategy in Afghanistan. The authors propose that specially trained and selected teams focused on long-term socio-cultural relations will fill a critical void in the military's current community engagement efforts and would lead to a more efficient use of military force and U.S. resources.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA536410
Entities
People
- Christopher T. Young
- Patrick M. Flood
- William J. Marm
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School