Thesiss

This dissertation answers the question of whether or not democracies can win counterinsurgency conflicts. This is done first through an analysis of the arguments made by those who claim that democracies are uniquely incapable of doing so due to various limitations imposed by pub…

Irregular warfare and insurgencies have been on the rise since the end of World War II. A particularly strong example of these conflicts is the ongoing conflict between the Lebanese Hezbollah and the state of Israel. In the course of the conflict, Hezbollah was able to accomplis…

This PhD thesis examines the status of ‘expert knowledge’ in the history of U.S. asymmetric, or ‘counterinsurgency’ (COIN), warfare during the last century. The historical rise of expert influence has so far been neglected in the study of wars within the field of International R…

Before the Second World War, the United States successfully prosecuted a number of counterinsurgency campaigns, defeating irregular adversaries in the Philippines and throughout the Caribbean. Since, the United States has not defeated a single irregular adversary despite numerou…

Among the most important choices made by groups fighting a civil war—governments and rebels alike—is how to allocate available military and pecuniary resources across the contested areas of a conflict-ridden territory. Combatants use military force to coerce and money to persuad…

Ever since Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer proclaimed that "the answer lies not in pouring more troops into the jungle, but in the hearts and minds of the people," common wisdom suggests that the key to military victory in counterinsurgency is "winning hearts and minds." As int…

On 11 September 2001, in a period of less than three hours, almost 3000 Americans had been killed in a sophisticated series of coordinated terrorist attacks. The United States found itself thrust into war. This new war was, and remains, very different from the wars the United St…