Deciphering Shades of Gray: Understanding Counterinsurgency
Deciphering Shades of Gray: Understanding Counterinsurgency
by Jon Mikolashek and Sean N. Kalic
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There is a current trend in the United States Army, advocated by some officers, that population-centric counterinsurgency (COIN) theory should be the sole focus of their intellectual pursuits. Nicknamed COINistas by friend and foe alike, COINistas concern themselves with how and why insurgencies emerge. While this trend is understandable considering their numerous deployments in counterinsurgency environments, from an academic perspective they are narrowly focused and tend toward formulaic solutions. This means that they use their battlefield experience combined with recent and shallow knowledge gleamed from several popular counterinsurgency studies to produce a simplified “strategy” for the current fight. The problem with this “solution” is that it overlooks the true complexity of the counterinsurgency fight by fixating on finding a simple solution. Our proposal is that there is a better way to understand counterinsurgency that will benefit the United States Army and the nation. The Army as an institution and these experienced and valiant, noble officers must incorporate more history into their critical thinking and study of insurgencies.
Download the Full Article: Deciphering Shades of Gray: Understanding Counterinsurgency
Jon Mikolashek is currently an Assistant Professor of History at the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Previously, he worked as a historian for the United States Army Center of Military History at Ft. McNair in Washington, DC in the Contemporary Studies Branch where he wrote Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, 2002-2005 (forthcoming) and as a military/political analyst for the Terrorism Research Center in Arlington, Virginia. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Longwood College in tiny Farmville, VA; a Masters of Arts in United States History from James Madison University and his PhD from Florida State University where he studied modern United States history and the Islamic World.
Sean N. Kalic is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the author Combating a Modern Hydra: Al Qaeda and the Global War on Terrorism. As well as the chapter “Blurring the Line Between War and Peace: The United States and Al Qaeda in the Global War on Terrorism,” in At War for Peace, edited by Mohammad Forough. Prior to joining the faculty at CGSC, he taught at Norwich University and Kansas State University. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Denver; Master of Science in Defense and Strategic Studies from Missouri State University; Master of Arts in History from Youngstown State University, and a PhD from Kansas State where he studied modern United States History and Military History.
