Date of Award
Fall 12-2016
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
History
First Advisor
Miles Doleac
Advisor Department
History
Abstract
The most common form of warfare so far in the 21st Century has been insurgencies and counterinsurgencies, types of warfare which are particularly challenging for industrialized Western nations to wage effectively. This paper identifies six factors of primary importance which form the key to a successful counterinsurgency campaign. These factors are legitimacy, clarity, beneficial geopolitical factors, restraint, intellectual understanding, and an enduring commitment. This paper argues that these factors must all be present for a counterinsurgency campaign to succeed, and argues that without these factors being accounted for a counterinsurgency will fail. The British humanitarian intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 and their subsequent counterinsurgency campaign is here considered as a type case study to illustrate the importance of these factors in waging a successful counterinsurgency campaign.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Rimann, John D., "Winning at the Graduate Level of Warfare: Six Core Factors of a Successful Counterinsurgency Campaign and the Example of Sierra Leone" (2016). Honors Theses. 446.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/446