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Countering Global Insurgency
Title: Countering Global Insurgency
Author: Lt. Col. David Kilcullen
Date: November 30, 2004
Institution: USMC
Bibliographic Entry: Kilcullen, David. “Countering Global Insurgency.” Small Wars Journal. November 30, 2004. www.smallwarsjournal.com/documents/kilcullen.pdf (Accessed October 11, 2007).
Electronic Link: www.smallwarsjournal.com/documents/kilcullen.pdf
Key Words: counterinsurgency, strategy, global war on terror, Islamism
Summary of Key Issues, Points, Conclusions:
The author asserts that the Global War on Terror (GWOT) is actually a campaign to counter a global Islamist insurgency. So, a counterinsurgency strategy is more appropriate than a counterterrorist approach. However, counterinsurgency has traditionally combated a nationalist/separatist threat, and has the weakness of being designed to defeat a limited insurgency in one country.
The author suggests that because classical counterinsurgency uses systems analysis, we now need a new analysis capable of handling the complexity of new global nature of the Islamic insurgency. And thus, the author asserts that countering the insurgency does not demand the destruction of every Islamist insurgent from the Philippines to Chechnya, rather a “disaggregation” model instead.
Name of Researcher: Katie Stout
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: Oct. 16, 2007