Is COIN No Longer Relevant?
Is COIN No Longer Relevant? By Whitney Kassel, Cicero Magazine
…Preparing for the unforeseen is a critical element of military preparedness. And while looking at the effectiveness of a doctrine like COIN in past conflicts is instructive, it can’t be the only factor that determines how the U.S. prepares its troops for combat. There is also asthe undeniable reality that global conflict is increasingly socio-political, with insurgencies based on ethnic and religious identities on the rise and conventional state-on-state warfare continuing to decline. Such trends make it more than likely that despite its disillusionment with COIN, the U.S. Army – and not just SOF – will find itself engaged in COIN-like warfare perhaps not in the next few years, but over the coming decades. To borrow from Trotsky, we may not be interested in COIN, but COIN is interested in us, necessitating a better, and ideally more integrated interagency approach, rather than an abandonment of the entire skill set. In this light, relying on SOF entities like USJFKSWCS to keep big Army up-to-date on COIN skills may ultimately prove short-sighted.
