What is it about?
In essence, this article offers a new "toolkit" for the defeat of insurgents by governments. In other words, this article examines in detail the political, ideological, economic, diplomatic and military parameters of a government's strategy to defeat an insurgency.
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Why is it important?
This article does not regurgitate the arguments of the old "population-centric vs enemy-centric" debate in counter-insurgency. Instead, this article uses the theory of grand strategy, a concept used only with reference to conventional wars, to interpret the optimum solution to insurgencies. This new "toolkit" for counter-insurgency can be used erga omnes - against every insurgency no matter its modus operandi, structure, ideology or power.
Perspectives
This publications is in fact a spin-off article from my doctoral thesis. By using the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) as a case study, I understood how a government can defeat an insurgency and why. I eventually codified this insights about counter-insurgency into a journal article.
Spyridon Plakoudas
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Strategy in Counterinsurgency: A Distilled Approach, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, November 2014, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/1057610x.2014.977000.
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