U.S. Army War College and
21st Century Defense Initiative
of The Brookings Institution
COIN OF THE REALM: U.S. COUNTERINSURGENCY STRATEGY
Ralph Wipi
The Brookings Institution
Dr. Steven Metz
Strategic Studies Institute
KEY INSIGHTS:
•Regardless of whether counterinsurgency (COIN) will be the dominant form of military activity in the future
or simply one of several, the United States needs an effective national strategy which explains when, why, and
how the nation should undertake it.
•The basic assumptions of the current approach need revisited, especially those dealing with the role of the state,
the strategic framework for American involvement, and the whole-of-government approach.
•Given the demands placed upon the armed forces by the current campaigns, most of the effort has been on tac-
tics, training, and doctrine. Ultimately strategic transformation is at least as important if not more so.
•Ratherthanthinkingofcounterinsurgencyandwarghtingascompetingtasks,themilitaryandothergovern-
ment agencies must pursue ways to integrate them, thus assuring that the United States can address the multi-
dimensional threats which characterize the contemporary security environment.
The “Future Defense Dilemmas” seminar series is a new partnership between the 21st Century Defense Initiative
at the Brookings Institution and the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. Its goal is to bring together
defense experts and policy leaders from academia, the military and defense community, other governmental
organizations, and nongovernmental institutions for discussions on looming defense questions and dilemmas.
On October, 22, 2007, the 21st Century Defense Initiative and the Strategic Studies Institute launched the Future
Defense Dilemma series with a day-long seminar entitled “COIN of the Realm: U.S. Counterinsurgency Strategy.”
This was inspired by the recent U.S. military experience in Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent renewed interest
in COIN. This has far-reaching effects on military doctrine, education, training, knowledge management, force
structure planning and personnel management, as research, development, and acquisition priorities. In a very real
sense, the U.S. military of the future will be shaped by efforts to become more effective at counterinsurgency. Given
this wide-ranging and deep impact, the seminar explored two key questions: (1) Is the United States pursuing and
executing the right strategy? And (2) Does the military’s focus on counterinsurgency detract from other defense and
security needs?
To address these issues, the seminar organizers assembled an impressive group of experts from the military,
government, and academia to present their assessment of the current effort, lay out the challenges, and offer options
for further increasing U.S. effectiveness at counterinsurgency. The event was not-for-attribution to encourage candid
debate. This brief summarizes the presentations, arguments, and discussions at the general level without attribution
to any particular speaker or participant. Professor Douglas Lovelace, Director of the U.S. Army War College Strategic
Studies Institute, and Dr. Peter W. Singer, Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at Brookings, provided
introductory remarks, introduced panel speakers, and moderated the discussions.
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