Grammar but No Logic: Technique is Not Enough – A Response to Nagl and Burton

Abstract

In issue 33/1 of The Journal of Strategic Studies, John Nagl and Brian Burton were provided with the opportunity to respond to the observations we made in our article, ‘Whose Hearts and Whose Minds? The Curious Case of Global Counter-Insurgency’, which appeared in the same issue. Nagl and Burton's reply, however, did not overtly address the points raised in our article, but instead offered a re-statement of the precepts of classical counter-insurgency (COIN). While we certainly recognise the value of counter-insurgency methods in conflicts such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, Nagl and Burton's reply overlooks our original concerns about the limited utility of neo-counter-insurgency thinking outside these environments and the dangerous political implications it contains. They further ignore our core contention that a narrow preoccupation with theatre-specific technique has profound limitations when offered as a universal panacea to address complex transnational threats.

Key Words:

• Counter-insurgency
• Insurgency
• Strategy

Notes

¹Bing West, ‘A Quick Note on Religion and Insurgency’, Small Wars Journal, 12 May 2007, <http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/05/a-quick-note-on-religion-and-i>.

²John A. Nagl and Brian M. Burton, ‘Thinking Globally and Acting Locally: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Modern Wars – A Reply to Jones and Smith’, Journal of Strategic Studies 33/1 (Feb. 2010), 124.

³Ibid., 124.

⁴David Martin Jones and M.L.R. Smith, ‘Whose Hearts and Whose Minds? The Curious Case of Global Counter-Insurgency’, Journal of Strategic Studies 33/1 (Feb. 2010), 102.

⁵David Kilcullen, ‘Subversion and Counter-Subversion in the Campaign against Terrorism in Europe’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 30/8 (Aug. 2006), 649.

⁶Nagl and Burton, ‘Thinking Globally and Acting Locally’, 126.

⁷David Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (Westport, CT: Praeger 2006) (orig. published 1964), 16.

¹⁴Ibid., 130.

⁸Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (London: Methuen 1981), 4.

⁹Nagl and Burton, ‘Thinking Globally and Acting Locally’, 125.

¹⁰Ibid., 126.

¹¹Ibid., 125.

¹²Ibid., 126.

¹³Ibid., 130.

¹⁵See for example, Mohamed Sifaoui, Inside al Qaeda: How I Infiltrated the World's Deadliest Terror Organization (London: Granta 2003), 129–31; Michael Gove, Celsius 7/7 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson 2006), 84–113; Melanie Phillipps, Londonistan (New York: Encounter 2006), 1–18; Jamie Campbell, ‘Why Terrorists Love Britain’, New Statesman, 9. Aug. 2005; Richard Woods and David Leppard, ‘How Liberal Britain Let Hate Flourish’, Sunday Times, 12 Feb. 2006; John F. Burns, ‘Terror Inquiry Looks at Suspect's Time in Britain’, New York Times, 30 Dec. 2009; Con Coughlin, ‘Al-Qaeda Threat: Britain Worst in Western World’, Daily Telegraph, 15 Jan. 2010.

¹⁶Nagl and Burton, ‘Thinking Globally and Acting Locally’, 130–1.

¹⁹Charles Moore, ‘Lawrence of Arabia's Legacy and the Paradox of Power’, Daily Telegraph, 19 Jan. 2010.

¹⁷Roger Sandall, The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays (Boulder, CO: Westview 2001), 71–128.

¹⁸‘The Legacy of Lawrence of Arabia’, Episode 1, Broadcast on BBC2, 16 Jan. 2010.

²⁰Ibid.

²¹‘The Legacy of Lawrence of Arabia’, Episode 2, Broadcast on BBC2, 23 Jan. 2010.

²²Nagl and Burton, ‘Thinking Globally and Acting Locally’, 135.

²³Ibid., 136.

²⁴See for example, Jon Stock, ‘Inside the Mind of a Seductive Killer’, Times, 21 Aug. 2002; Craig Whitlock, ‘Briton Used Internet as Bully Pulpit’, Washington Post, 8 Aug. 2005; Duncan Gardam, Nigel Bunyan, Auslan Cramb and Richard Edwards, ‘Seven Doctors Held Over al-Qa'eda Bomb Plot’, Daily Telegraph, 3 Jul. 2007.

²⁵Carl von Clausewitz, On War, trans. and ed. Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton: Princeton UP 1984), 605.

²⁶Ibid., 88 (emphasis in original).