Perspectives on the American way of war: the U.S. experience in irregular conflict

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the US government.

Notes

1. Marks, “Regaining the Initiative”.

2. Though not focused on this topic specifically, the larger issue, as presaged by its title, is treated extensively in the superb recent work by Nolan, The Allure of Battle.

3. Every political system is comprised of a structure that either speaks to and facilitates individual and group opportunity – or does not. For democratic systems, legitimacy is essential; for authoritarian systems, power is central. Intellectuals consume themselves endeavoring to theorize on and demonstrate the extent to which democracy exists through mystification and building an intangible structure of false consciousness. Gramsci remains a particular favorite of this genre, and he offers a great deal that is useful; but the vulgar Marxism that holds individuals are incapable of exercising agency due to systemic entrapment founders whenever adequate safeguards are in place to allow the exercise of free will (e.g., secret ballots, a free press, the rule of law). Benchmark original work on the political opportunity structure is Eisinger, “The Conditions of Protest Behavior,” 11–28.

4. An astute assessment can be found in Canfield, “The Futility of Force,” 62–79.

5. For superb discussion of the first, see Holt, Into the Land of Bones; for the second, Cheesman, The Auxilia of the Roman, also Meyer, The Creation, Composition; for the third, see the recent Cusick, Wellington’s Rifles.

6. Mandatory reading for both the Revolutionary War and the tactical state of the irregular art at the time is the work by the German partisan participant, Ewald, Diary of the American War; see also Ewald’s, Treatise on Partisan Warfare, which was originally published in 1785; for theoretical and operational context, see Heuser, ed., Small Wars and Insurgencies.

7. For an excellent recent treatment of the subject, see Hay, “An End to Empire”.

8. In which Gandhi is brutalized for his effrontery in claiming equal rights legally (as a British citizen) and in terms of status (he was a lawyer) when resident in Durban, South Africa; see Gandhi (Columbia, 1982); available at Amazon.

9. Best single work on both individuals and the sources of their system is Finch, A Progressive Occupation.

10. Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States, 1. Available at https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-Defense-Strategy-Summary.pdf (accessed 5 November 2018).

11. Hoffman, “Sharpening Our Military Edge”.

12. Boot, The Savage Wars of Peace, xxiv.

13. Phillips, Why Vietnam Matters.

14. For Chinese observations see A. Marks, Counterrevolution in China.

15. Komer, Bureaucracy Does its Thing.

16. Army FM 3-24/MCWP 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency.

17. For the strategic conundrum, see Andrade, “Westmoreland was Right”; for proper balance, Andrade and Willbanks, “CORDS/Phoenix”; for nonmilitary approaches, Hunt, Pacification; for present state of knowledge on the nature of the conflict, O’Dowd, “What Kind of War is This?”

18. This would seem to be the oft-misunderstood point of Fukuyama, The End of History.

19. The most comprehensive treatment to date of what the U.S. actually provided to support the Colombian effort is Berrios, “Critical Ingredient”; for assessment of conflict outcomes at this point, see Ospina et al., “Colombia and the War-to-Peace Transition”, as well as Ospina and Marks, eds., ¿FARC: Derrota Militar y Victoria Política.

20. Originally treated in articles which appeared in Small Wars and Insurgencies, these cases were consolidated in Marks, Maoist Insurgency Since Vietnam. Incorporation of expanded treatment of the U.S. role for the first case may be found in Marks, “Thailand: Anatomy of a Counterinsurgency Victory”.

21. See Ucko, “Counterinsurgency in El Salvador”.