Counterinsurgency Operations Research Articles

“Phantom operators”: special operations forces and asymmetric warfare in Northern Nigeria.

ABSTRACT Across the world, Special Operations Forces (SOFs) play a leading role in asymmetric warfare. The unique trainings, skills, weapons, and equipment of these elite Tier 1 operators, differentiates them from conventional forces, making them the preferred choice in complex environments. SOFs are ideally deployed for short operations, which include direct action missions, hostage rescue, hunting high-value targets (HVTs), mobility operations, intelligence operations, airborne operations, counterterrorism (CT), counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, and covert operations among others. While the literature has mostly focused on the utility of major powers’ SOFs in the Global War on Terror (GWOT), with little attention on Africa’s SOF’s, this paper examines the origins, evolution, composition, and deployments of Nigeria’s SOFs specifically in the Northeast, Northcentral, and Northwest theatres of operation, against the Boko Haram insurgency and armed banditry, respectively. Drawing on primary data from interviews with key informants and other secondary data sources, the paper interrogates the successes, challenges, and prospects of Nigeria’s SOFs. The strategic utility and overreliance on Nigeria’s SOFs by political leaders and the Military’s High Command puts a strain on their strategic value which potentially undermines their strategic efficacy as a force-multiplier in the long run, against unconventional threats.

The politics of eviction and citizenship in the Brahmaputra valley, Assam, India

ABSTRACT Floods and erosion have been among the primary factors to induce the displacement of indigenous Axomiya and the Miya communities in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam. This trend has been observed since the last quarter of the twentieth century, and more prominently in the first decade of the twenty-first century. These displaced communities encountered eviction as their self-settlement in exclusive zones like forests, embankments or grazing lands were legally appraised as encroachments. Therefore, contested claims over land are a central concern in the governance and bureaucratic milieu of Assam. The eviction drive that was carried out in Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary of Guwahati in 2017 is regarded as one of the most vulnerable evictions of recent times. This article deals with the question of counter-insurgency operations of the State from the narrative of erosion, eviction and indigeneity. This study derives its data and inferences from primary modes of data collection, mainly field study and face-to-face interviews.

Locating Counterinsurgency in Media on Kashmir in a Post-Neo-Liberal Framework

Using critical media theories of framing, propaganda and agenda-setting that intersect, the author attempts to unravel the links between counterinsurgency (COIN) and media in India-administered Kashmir against the backdrop of a post-neo-liberal framework as an example of hegemony armoured by coercion. The author will reframe COIN as a state response to a people’s movement for self-determination. An analysis of the effects of the post-neo-liberal framework on the governing class that enacts COIN strategies through the media will not only illuminate the machinations of the media but will also unravel its social and cultural effects and their role in perpetuating an unjust social order in a contested space. An examination of the roots of ethnonationalism will expose the media’s nexus with power and the nature of COIN operations through the media in Kashmir.

From mass mobilization to neoliberal war-making: Labor strikes and military-industrial transformation in the United States

How did workers affect—and how were they affected by—the dramatic transformations of U.S. war-making that have occurred since the mid-twentieth century? Where do such transformations leave workers and war in the twenty-first century? Using newly compiled data on workers’ strikes in the U.S. armaments industries from World War II through the present, this paper examines the relationship between labor and military-industrial restructuring. The paper introduces the concept of regimes of war-making and makes three main arguments. First, workers’ power was a significant force shaping the shift from a regime of mass mobilization war-making to a regime of neoliberal war-making, as armaments firms aimed to overcome the constraints imposed by workers in the mid-twentieth century. Wartime mobilizations—for Korea and Vietnam—temporarily stymied these efforts by enhancing the disruptive power of workers, who leveraged that power into pauses or reversals of firms’ initial attempts at restructuring. Second, U.S. defeat in Vietnam was a watershed moment. Mass mobilization was abandoned, and the changing nature of war meant that subsequent military buildups offered workers little leverage with which to resist restructuring. Third, in the twenty-first century, the combination of greatly expanded wars and decades of restructuring has resulted in a bifurcation among armaments workers, between those producing supplies needed for pressing counterinsurgency operations and those producing other innovative, but unused, systems. Thus, while the regime of neoliberal war-making has reduced the size and strength of armaments workers in general, some still have significant disruptive potential at the present juncture.

Rebel Capacity, Intelligence Gathering, and Combat Tactics

AbstractClassic and modern theories of rebel warfare emphasize the role of resource endowments. We demonstrate that intelligence gathering, made possible by these endowments, plays a critical role in determining specifics of how rebels launch complex attacks against better equipped government forces. We test implications of a theoretical model using highly detailed data about Afghan rebel attacks, insurgent‐led spy networks, and counterinsurgent operations. Leveraging quasi‐random variation in opium suitability, we find that improved rebel capacity is associated with (1) increased insurgent operations; (2) improved battlefield tactics through technological innovation, increased complexity, and attack clustering; and (3) increased effectiveness against security forces, especially harder targets. These results show that access to capital, coupled with intelligence gathering, meaningfully impacts how and where rebels fight.

Fiscal Incentives for Conflict: Evidence from India's Red Corridor

Abstract Can tax regimes shape the incentives to engage in armed conflict? Indian mining royalties benefit the states but are set by the central government. India's Maoist belt is mineral rich, and states are responsible for counterinsurgency operations. We exploit the introduction of a 10% ad valorem tax on iron ore that increased royalty collections of the affected states by a factor of 10. We find that the royalty hike was followed by a significant intensification of violence in districts with important iron ore deposits. The royalty increase was also followed by an increase in illegal mining activity in iron mines.

Combat Exposure and Unit Cohesion as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms Among Nigerian Soldiers

The Bokoharam terrorist organisation has been terrorizing North Eastern Nigeria for decades. The Nigerian Army has been saddled with the responsibility of re-establishing peace in that area through its counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations. Some of the soldiers who were injured at course of this operation were found to have some challenges with their wellbeing. This study was carried out among Nigerian Soldiers wounded in action and hospitalized from the fight against Insurgency in the North-eastern part of Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select 225 participants under hospital admission in 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Kaduna with combat experience. Data were collected using standardized questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses in relation to Combat Exposure and Unit Cohesion as predictors of Depressive Symptoms. Findings of the study revealed that Combat Exposure significantly predicted Depressive symptoms among Nigerian Soldiers wounded in action (β = .583, P <.01). Result further revealed that Unit Cohesion was a significant predictor of Depressive Symptoms among the soldiers wounded in action (β = -.177, P <.01). Finally, the result revealed that combined Combat Exposure and Unit Cohesion significantly predicted Depressive Symptoms among Nigerian soldiers wounded in action (R = .647a, R2 = .418, Adj. R2 = .411; P <. 01). The study recommended that the military authorities should effectively engage the services of mental health professionals such as the Psychologists to help in assessment and treating soldiers with combat trauma. Also, mood disorder alongside other factors such as life experience should be assessed as applied to the patients especially soldier patients being referred from combat arears irrespective of the nature of the health challenges as this study has shown that there is mental aspect of physical injury. Most of the soldiers are traumatized, overly depressed, feel guilty and have bad mood, poor appetites, insomnia, lack of motivation, rage, and abuse of drugs and alcohol.

Beyond Judgements and Emotions: Understanding the Koevoet

Steve Crump: Koevoet: South West African Police Counter-Insurgency Operations During the South African Border War 1978-1984

Fighting for Time: Rhodesia’s Military and Zimbabwe’s Independence by Charles D. Melson

<i>Fighting for Time: Rhodesia’s Military and Zimbabwe’s Independence</i> by Charles D. Melson

ANALISIS SEMIOTIKA DALAM PESAN MORAL FILM THE EAST

Abstract : The East film is set in 1946 when the Netherlands entered the Indonesian national revolution period. A young soldier named Johan was fascinated by Army captain Raymond Westerling who led a counter-insurgency operation against Indonesian guerrillas and a clean-up operation in South Sulawesi, but gradually Johan began to question himself more and more about war. This type of research is descriptive qualitative research that uses data collection techniques, observation, documentation. While the data analysis technique is the content analysis model, by reducing data, displaying data, verifying or drawing conclusions. The results of the study show that the film The East has a hidden or visible moral message in every scan, both verbally and visually. The results are in accordance with Charles Sanders Pierce's semiotic signs in the form of Representament (Icon, Index, symbol), Object, Interpretant.&#x0D; &#x0D; Keywords: moral message, semiotics, Object Representament, Interpretant.

FM 3-24 and Religious Literacy in American Military Operations in the Middle East

In August 2021, the Taliban’s success in Afghanistan shocked American citizens and foreign policy analysts. Many counterinsurgency experts sought to explain this phenomenon by focusing on tactical and strategic military failures; however, such explanations often neglected to investigate the religious literacy of American troops engaged in counterinsurgency operations in the Middle East. By considering the treatment of religious literacy in General David Petraeus’s landmark field manual, FM 3-24, a startling degree of religious illiteracy is revealed within counterinsurgency operational protocols. While a historically and culturally focused “civilizational approach” is often proposed by foreign policy analysts as a potential solution to the problem of religious illiteracy in counterinsurgency operations, this approach also falls short of addressing the complex realities that confront American “liberators,” whom locals often perceive to be foreign invaders. This article therefore addresses the disconnect between American military strategy, foreign policy, and the tactical realities encountered by military personnel stationed in the Middle East. Resultantly, this article argues that improved mandatory religious literacy training for American troops is critical not only for conducting successful operations in the Middle East but also for ending, rather than reinvigorating, conflicts abroad.

Urban counterinsurgency: the Union Defence Force and the suppression of the 1922 Rand Revolt

ABSTRACT In early 1922, in the wake of a global depression followed by rapidly deteriorating labour and economic conditions, several thousand white mine workers on the Witwatersrand in the Union of South Africa went on strike. These miners armed and organised themselves into commandos and took to the streets. During the opening phases of the unrest, these paramilitary units clashed with the South African Police. By the beginning of March, the strikes transformed into a violent insurrection with railway workers also joining its ranks after negotiations between the mine workers, mine owners, and the government failed and new militant leadership assumed command. As chaos and disorder engulfed large tracts of the Johannesburg goldfields and levels of violence assumed new proportions, the state’s legitimacy increasingly came under threat. In response, martial law was declared, and elements of the Union Defence Force were deployed to quell the so-called 1922 Rand Revolt. Historically unaccustomed to urban warfare and without an appropriate doctrine, the defence force became involved in several high-intensity urban counterinsurgency operations against the strike commandos. Drawing from a variety of archival material, this article investigates the combat operations undertaken by the UDF to suppress the 1922 Rand Revolt.

A Historical Overview of Boer Guerrilla and British Counterinsurgency Operations During the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902

ABSTRACT The year 1901 saw an upsurge in Boer guerrilla and concomitant British counterinsurgency operations during the Anglo-Boer (South African) War of 1899 to 1902 – especially in the wake of the failed Middelburg peace negotiations. One hundred and twenty years later, it is appropriate that these events should be revisited. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the Boer guerrilla and British counterinsurgency operations, including events in the Cape Colony, where the conflict had grave implications for the local white, brown and black inhabitants, who were caught up between the British and Boer forces, and where in certain areas of the war zone, a civil war was fought. The reactions and views of Lord Kitchener, the British Commander-in-Chief, receive particular attention, as he tried to bring the war to a close as soon as possible, and in the process laying waste to large areas of the war zone, thanks to the scorched-earth policy implemented by the British Army in South Africa.

Use of Force to Protect Civilians in United Nations Peacekeeping: Military Culture, Organisational Learning and Troop Reticence

ABSTRACT Combining empirical examples from domestic counterinsurgency operations, with historical and primary field data in longitudinal cases of peacekeeping participation by the Indian troops, we develop a preliminary theory of troop reticence. We find that while there is significant learning around civilian protection on the part of Indian troops from internal counterinsurgency operations, there are also important operational differences. Problems with insubordination to international command, gaps in intelligence analysis, and ambiguity over the rules of engagement amidst host-state directed armed attacks on civilians, can make troops hesitant to execute the protection of civilians (PoC) mandate more robustly.

Can the Rebel Body Function without its Visible Heads? The Role of Mid-Level Commanders in Peacebuilding

ABSTRACT Mid-level commanders are commonly considered the visible heads of the rebel body: as leaders of combat operations, they are often targeted in counterterrorism or counterinsurgency operations. While their role during conflict has been theorized extensively, only recent scholarship has focused on mid-level commanders in post-conflict transitions. Specifically, it is not clear how mid-level commanders function within ex-combatant groups to create divergent peacebuilding results. This paper argues that transitions from conflict involve fraying of wartime bonds and rebel command-and-control structures, which is counterproductive to peace when rebels demobilize collectively. In peacetime and in the absence of wartime command, social groups formed through military logic struggle to redefine individual roles. Mid-level commanders, responsible for shaping intergroup bonds during conflict, are essential for allocating ex-combatant roles and redefining rebel-civilian relations. Against the common practice of breaking rebel wartime command-and-control structure during demobilization, this paper argues that ex-combatant groups can demobilize and reintegrate more successfully if they maintain their wartime cohesion and are provided the necessary tools for building sustainable livelihoods. To support the argument, the paper provides original qualitative and quantitative evidence from the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) programme with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The Art of the Impossible: Intelligence and Nigeria’s Boko Haram War, 2010–2021

This work is an analysis of the role of intelligence in Nigeria’s counterinsurgency (COIN) and counterterrorism (CT) operations between 2010 and 2021. The article argues that Nigeria will have to deploy, in a holistic, synchronized, and proactive manner, targeted intelligence-gathering techniques if it hopes to effectively counter the threats of terrorism and insurgency. It shows that the effective and proactive use of intelligence contributed significantly to Boko Haram’s persistence and resilience in its engagements with the Nigerian military in the contested zones of the northeast. In order for Nigeria to be able to effectively contain and defeat the threats of insurgency and terrorism, the study recommends the application of the cybernetics theory of intelligence and the triplicity approach (TA). The triplicity approach is the synchronous and holistic use of human intelligence, open-source intelligence, and financial intelligence in Nigeria’s COIN and CT operations. Cybernetics theory and TA emphasize the effective collection and utilization of information to achieve the overall objective of enhancing Nigeria’s security. The study concludes that the use of TA will make it possible for Nigeria to proactively respond to insurgency and terrorism and go on the offensive to neutralize these threats.

Boko Haram, security architecture and counterinsurgency in North-East, Nigeria

While previous studies have interrogated the motivations of Boko Haram and the role of security agencies in counterinsurgency, explanations of the escalation of Boko Haram attacks on Nigerian security agencies have received limited academic attention. This study re-examines the dynamics of counterinsurgency operations in Nigeria within the context of the fragile state thesis. It argues that fragility of relevant state institutions has compromised the military-led counterinsurgency operations by flipping out strategic intelligence to the terrorists, embezzlement of arms procurement funds, sabotage and deplorable welfare condition of combatants, among others. Thus, the relevant state institutions should be strengthened to proactively respond to the maladies bedeviling the military-led counterinsurgency operations in the North-East region.

Roots of Afridi Insurgency in British India’s North-West Frontier: 1849-1897

ABSTRACT The North-West Frontier of British India, a semi-independent mountainous borderland, was the site of continuous Pukhtun armed struggle against colonial intrusion throughout the nineteenth century and into the first half of the twentieth. Persistent tribal armed attacks and major rebellions were followed by ‘butcher and bolt’ or ‘burn and scuttle’ British military expeditions, including one of the biggest Victorian small wars–the Tirah Campaign of 1897/98. Two features are particularly distinctive about the Pukhtun insurgencies: 1) The fierce and consistent nature of Pukhtun opposition to the encroaching British military state; 2) The insurgents’ success in warding off annexation and inflicting decisive military defeat time and time again propelled the colonial state into an ongoing reflexive about its failure to ‘pacify’ the region and control the tribes. Focusing on Afridi insurgency in the nineteenth century, this article examines some themes that draw attention to causes, grievances, and toward the insurgent actors. While our fleeting glimpses into insurgents motives and actions come largely from colonial accounts of counter-insurgency operations, by drawing on my extensive archival and field research in the North-West Frontier, including Afridi oral testimonies, this paper focuses its lens on the Pukhtun perspective of the North-West Frontier ‘small wars’.

Beatriz Allende: A Revolutionary Life in Cold War Latin America

Beatriz Allende: A Revolutionary Life in Cold War Latin America

Empire City: A Novel by Matt Gallagher

Reviewed by: Empire City: A Novel by Matt Gallagher Caleb S. Cage (bio) empire city: a novel Matt Gallagher Atria Books https://catalog.simonandschuster.com/TitleDetails/TitleDetails.aspx?cid=1318&isbn=9781501177804&FilterByName=&FilterBy=&FilterVal=&ob=0&pn=1&ed=&showcart=N&camefrom=&find=empire%20city&a= 368 pages; Print, $17.00 Empire City, Matt Gallagher's 2020 novel, is a complex literary work. It tests literary boundaries by being both an alternative history of the United States around the turn of the twenty-first century and also a work of science fiction with characters with superhuman powers. It is a rich and timely social commentary on contemporary America, and it is also an extraordinary literary achievement. Empire City could hold its own in any one of these categories, but Gallagher's daring effort to combine them makes it a remarkable, important, and prescient work. Empire City is set in New York City, here renamed the Empire City, America's first city-state. The establishment of the first city-state is not just due to taxes, as Gallagher puts it simply, but due to an entire chain of alternative events, which he signals throughout the opening chapters. In this America, the American flag has sixty stars and thirteen stripes, a Rockefeller has served as president, there is a Nixon memorial and Westmoreland Plaza, and Tupac is alive and a reality television star. There are countless others, of course, all ranging from mundane to monumental. What is central to the America of Gallagher's novel, though, is that it primarily identifies as the eventual victors of a drawn-out Vietnam War and little else. In this America there is a vibrant warrior class made up of 3 percent of the population, a group that is venerated and valorized for fighting the nation's wars. These warriors, all volunteers and immigrants seeking citizenship, are also venerated for providing examples of duty, meaning, and sacrifice to the broader civilian population, which is mostly engaged in economic life not terribly different from that of the real twenty-first-century America. [End Page 19] Although Gallagher makes it clear that winning the Vietnam War is absolutely central to the national identity, it is almost as clear that the country learned almost all of the wrong lessons from that victory. In the aftermath of that victory, the America of Empire City turned its focus entirely inward, though hardly isolationist. It learned that counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations could successfully defeat guerrilla armies, and it practiced that lesson in countless places around the globe. That is, other countries are mentioned in Empire City only as locations of American occupations and wars, not as sovereign nations with interests, complex local politics, or even as the home to innocent civilians. All of this creates a strange new American exceptionalism for Gallagher's readers to consider. On the one hand, the America of Empire City is economically powerful, militarily ambitious, and unbothered by, even unaware of, the sincere grievances of the people and nations it encounters through the exercise of its power. On the other hand, it has outsourced all of its global adventurism to mercenaries from a small percentage of the population, so much so that the average American can only revere the military service and avoid any of the gruesome details. As Gallagher's narrator puts it: "There were three ways to tell war stories to twenty-first-century Americans: brave, sad, violent. All needed to be clean as a bone. Anything else was too much." An intense political drama plays out within the world Gallagher creates, a drama that reflects all of the social and cultural illnesses and neuroses of such a world. The America of Empire City is divided, even within the warrior class, even as many of the important institutions and freedoms still basically hold. That is, Empire City is dystopian, though not as thoroughgoing as 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale. There are still political prizes to attain, there is still power to exert, and the citizens still have some say in how that happens. This provides a fascinating foundation for the novel's plot, a plot that is only enhanced by Gallagher's decision...