Quote:
Originally Posted by Stan187
Guys, there is one aspect for my paper that have yet to find really good stuff for. I'd appreciate a link to an article on the economics of counterinsurgency, an economic "how to" of sorts, where to give money, how to do it, etc.
Many thanks,
Stan
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Stan,
Some more food for thought:
LTG Chiarelli's
Winning the Peace
LTG Petraeus'
Learning Counterinsurgency
RAND's
America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq
Some keys to economic aid is that it needs to reinforce the legitimacy of the government (it can provide basic services), it has to keep folks off the street waiting to be hired guns and put them to work, and it has to create self-sustaining markets. This is just a quick off the top of my head statement, so it's certainly not complete, but I think the big thing is that you have to subordinate and enst the economic program into the political plan for success.
For example, we provided aid to Vietnam under Diem, but all it really did was increase consumption of items that Vietnam normally would import/produce. Thus, it provided no self-sustaining benefit, and instead, it created expectations that were bound to fail. However, the "miracle rice" crops that were later given are an example of a successful program.
In Iraq, we've failed in some of our reconstruction efforts because we went with lowest bidder contracts without thought to how the losing contractors (and their tribes) would react to being shutout. While not as economically efficient, the FL ARNG BDE that operated in Ramadi was cognizant of this and made sure that all the local tribes got a piece of the pie. I think that the two posts below should hopefully get at this story (I hope - I couldn't bring up the blog piece, so I'm not sure how much it does or doesn't).
Marines From Iraq Sound Off About Want Of Armor And Men
COUNTERCOLUMN: With your host, Huck of Darkness