THE SMALL WARS JOURNAL BLOG<\/b><\/p>\n
Via email, Dave Dilegge<\/strong> let me know that The Small Wars Journal<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>has begun its own blog <\/a>, which featured a post, “A Framework for thinking about Iraq Strategy<\/a>“, by LTC David Kilcullen<\/strong>, a special adviser to the Department of State and an expert on counterinsurgency warfare. An excerpt:<\/p>\n “This is a model, not a strategy. That is, it is a systematic oversimplification, designed to clarify an extremely complex, rapidly-changing reality. It does not tell us what to do in Iraq, but is a basis for evaluating options. It is wrong \u2013 all models are \u2013 but applied tentatively, with skepticism, and with constant and rigorous \u201cground truth\u201d from first-hand observation in theater, I have sometimes found it useful.<\/p>\n ….The \u201cFour Problems\u201d concept<\/p>\n In essence, the model suggests that Iraq comprises four strategic problems:<\/p>\n an underlying nation-building problem, resulting from the fact that Iraq is a weak and fragile state, and three overlapping security problems that sit \u201cabove\u201d that underlying problem, and make it harder to get at it. The three problems are: <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong>Insurgency \u2013 the (primarily Sunni) rebellion against the new post-Saddam order in Iraq, including rebellion against both the coalition presence and the new Iraqi government, and <\/span><\/strong> It is a post of high quality and significant length which you can read in full here<\/a>. Kilcullen references Iraq as a “wicked problem”, a subject I have blogged about previously <\/a>for those interested in the term.<\/p>\n If I may make a suggestion, one element that needs to be added for clarity’s sake is some sort of “about us” that is germane to the blog rather than the SWJ as a whole. Who is\/are\/will be the regular bloggers at the SWJ Blog ? Dave Dilegge promises a varied stable of contributors <\/a>so I’m looking forward to making SWJ Blog<\/strong> <\/a>a regular read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE SMALL WARS JOURNAL BLOG Via email, Dave Dilegge let me know that The Small Wars Journal has begun its own blog , which featured a post, “A Framework for thinking about Iraq Strategy“, by LTC David Kilcullen, a special adviser to the Department of State and an expert on counterinsurgency warfare. An excerpt: “This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span><\/strong>
Terrorism \u2013 that is, the presence of terrorist entities including (but not limited to) AQI who seek to exploit the situation in Iraq to further extremist or trans-national aims<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/strong>
Communal Conflict \u2013 including sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shi\u2019a elements, and ethnic conflict between Kurds, Arabs and other ethnic groups. <\/span><\/strong>
These three security problems overlap: incidents may involve elements of more than one dimension \u2013 for example, some terrorism is \u201cpure\u201d AQI activity, while other terrorist acts are insurgent-motivated, and yet others incorporate a sectarian dimension. Most incidents in fact include elements of two dynamics, or all three. You might think of the three problems as a Venn diagram of overlapping circles, each constantly changing in size, with any incident able to be plotted somewhere within the interaction of the three dynamics \u2013 terrorism, insurgency and communal conflict.<\/span><\/strong>“<\/p>\n