Counterinsurgency and the Social Sciences

Catalog description

According to the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual No. 3-24, published in 2007, “counterinsurgency is not just the thinking man’s warfare—it is the graduate level of war.” Against this background, this course provides historical, cultural, and intellectual perspectives on counterinsurgencies. The focus is less on specific battles than on the following: the historical and geographical contexts of counterinsurgency; how its doctrine and practice have drawn on methods and concepts more traditionally associated with social sciences including anthropology; the ethical and political issues and debates this has raised within the discipline and academia generally; how media representations have worked to gain public approval for counterinsurgency campaigns; and how societies have dealt with their aftermath. Course materials include cultural, political economic, and historical approaches and focus on different eras and areas of the globe.