Conflictdaily · @conflictdaily
6th Apr 2013 from TwitLonger
a rare insight in the pedagogy of COIN by @asytactrain
Richard J. Campbell recently forwarded me a link to a collection of his writings on COIN ( http://t.co/oG88rSAqQn )which includes 4 pieces he wrote on the way in which understanding of COIN, the way it is taught, revisions of its key manuals and how there seems to be a real hit-and-miss quality to the way in which forces and governments the world over look at irregular warfare(well that's my interpretation of his writing).
Now, what is most interesting about these is not only their quality and very (socio) scholarly content, but that Richard J. Campbell was COIN Training Developer at the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan in Kabul from 2010 to its closure in the fall of 2012, and is the writer of the quite acclaimed 'Assymetric Tactical Training', which makes what he writes automatically an important read for anyone who wants to better understand the concerns of those on the 'inside' of the doctrine/approach that more than anything shaped our view of military and civil engagement in Afghanistan.
The articles show that, contrary to the view of the often bemused outside world, clear discussions and family-groups of COIN and IW practitioners and developers existed within government, army, NATO etc....some more clever than others...
For people like me, who look at life and the world as a conflicting sequence of bureau-politics "Coin the way ahead" and "Small wars and big armies" are brilliant eye-openers to how a key-policy is developed and the real (dis)connect between practical issues and policy-level concerns. I especially apppreciate the very real management-issues when it comes to decisions on audience or the in-exclusion of concepts. This may sound dry and technical, but these decisions will have had / will have real influence on the understanding of COIN for troops on the ground and those behing desks in Washington or Brussels.
"COIN in a box, packaging a wicked problem" is a good excercise in social pedagogy and thinking of how training or messaging comes across and influences response. The approach taken by Campbell and his co-author tries to approach COIN (and related concepts) as a wicked problem (Rittel and Webber's construct) for which there is no solution...of course we do know that wicked problems can be contained or weakened though, which is exactly what the authors are suggesting at with their continuum idea. I'd like to see a worked-out continuum, based on state- society theory in combination with on-the-ground knowledge of the behaviour of insurgencies...I think Campbell would be up for it.
All 4 are not the easiest reads, but certainly worth a try if you want to (re)position your thinking about COIN or IW in general with some deeper understanding of tthe politics of training.