Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom showcased
the dazzling technological and professional prowess of the U.S.
military in conventional operations. As more recent experience in
Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrate, however, significant challenges
remain in confronting protracted insurgency and instability. The
way insurgents have vexed U.S. troops and civilian agencies may
also embolden future opponents to embrace insurgency as the only
viable means for combating the Unite States. Thus, both current and
future wars demand that the U.S. improve its ability to conduct
counterinsurgency (COIN) operations. Over the course of five
decades, RAND has accumulated an impressive body of research on
counterinsurgency, from theories of why insurgency takes place to
tactical operations. The author provides an intellectual history of
COIN theory, summarizes elements of successful COIN campaigns, and
makes recommendations on improving it based on RAND's decades-long
study of the subject. Covering a wide range of cases, from the
British experience in Malaysia to the French in Algeria to the
United States in El Salvador, the author points out that while
specific details vary greatly, lessons of insurgency and
counterinsurgency can and should be applied in Iraq, Afghanistan,
and wherever else the U.S. may need to wage low-intensity conflict.
On "Other War" provides an invaluable aid to understanding and
developing successful responses to modern COIN challenges and
should interest policymakers, decisionmakers in the armed forces,
and specialists and students of military and political affairs. The
term "other war," meaning pacification operations, arose in Vietnam
to differentiate those operations from the "real war" of
conventional search-and-destroy operations. This focus on
high-intensity conflict has, perhaps ironically, resulted in such
overwhelming superiority in nuclear and conventional military
capability that opponents (with a few possible exceptions) are
forced to embrace low intensity conflict as the only viable means
of challenging the United States. In Iraq and Afghanistan, rapid
and overwhelming conventional success has been countered by
terrorism and insurgency. Adaptation and learning about COIN have
thus become critical for the military in the 21st century.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
