POST: The Kilcullen Doctrine, By Mark Safranski, zenpundit, May 29th, 2009

A very nice post by Zenpundit, my favorite bit being his repeat (from a John Nagl review of Kilcullen's Accidental Guerrilla) that distill's Nagl's distillation of Kilcullen into an "anti-Powell doctrine" when it comes to counter-insurgency (something I would not say fits all interventions but those relevant--in a geographic sense--parts of interventions that involve local insurgencies):

....In direct opposition to the ideas that drove American intervention policy two decades ago, Kilcullen suggests 'the anti -Powell doctrine' for counter-insurgency campaigns.

* First, planners should select the lightest, most indirect and least intrusive form of intervention that will achieve the necessary effect.
* Second, policy-makers should work by, with, and through partnerships with local government administrators, civil society leaders, and local security forces whenever possible.
* Third, whenever possible, civilian agencies are preferable to military intervention forces, local nationals to international forces, and long-term, low-profile engagement to short-term, high-profile intervention.

Ed: Mark links Nagl and Kilkullen to Tom in this graf:

Thomas P.M. Barnett, a friend of this blog, has been articulating a visionary grand strategy since 2004 in a series of books, the latest of which is Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, where he essentially models for the readers how a grand strategy is constructed from historical trajectories and economic currents to make the case. Barnett's themes have a great consilience with most of what COIN advocates would like to see happen, but Dr. Barnett's public example of intellectual proselytizing and briefing to normal people outside of the beltway is even more important. Operational doctrine is not enough. It is untethered. It will float like a balloon in a political wind. It is crisis management without a destination or sufficient justification for expenditure of blood and treasure. If these blanks are not filled in, they will be filled in by others.