MILITARY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER BASIC COURSE VAN DEMAN PROGRAM REVISITING COIN THEORY AND INSTRUCTION VDP VIP BRIEF PAPER MR. MILLER 1LT ALLISON Y.

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1 MILITARY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER BASIC COURSE VAN DEMAN PROGRAM REVISITING COIN THEORY AND INSTRUCTION VDP VIP BRIEF PAPER MR. MILLER BY 1LT ALLISON Y. PAN FORT HUACHUCA, AZ 13 MARCH 2009

2 Repor Documenaion Page Form Approved OMB No Public reporing burden for he collecion of informaion is esimaed o average 1 hour per response, including he ime for reviewing insrucions, searching exising daa sources, gahering and mainai he daa needed, and compleing and reviewing he collecion of informaion. Send commens regarding his burden esimae or any oher aspec of his collecion of informaion, including suggesions for reducing his burden, o Washingon Headquarers Services, Direcorae for Informaion Operaions and Repors, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suie 1204, Arlingon VA Respondens should be aware ha nowihsanding any oher provision of law, no person shall be subjec o a penaly for failing o comply wih a collecion of informaion if i does no display a currenly valid OMB conrol number. 1. REPORT DATE 13 MAR REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED o TITLE AND SUBTITLE Revisiing COIN Theory and Insrucion 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Universiy of Miliary Inelligence,For Huachuca,Sierra Visa,AZ, PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR S ACRONYM(S) 12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT Approved for public release; disribuion unlimied 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR S REPORT NUMBER(S) 15. SUBJECT TERMS 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT a. REPORT unclassified b. ABSTRACT unclassified c. THIS PAGE unclassified Same as Repor (SAR) 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 7 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON Sandard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Sd Z39-18

3 The Van Deman Program in MIOBC has as is pinnacle goal he producion of premier analyss for oday s Army. I propose ha he focus of he MIOBC program a large should be wha he Van Deman Program aims for and ha all graduaes of MIOBC, no simply ha handful in every class, are he bes analyss hey can be. In order o achieve his goal, I believe cerain fundamenal changes mus be made o he MIOBC poins of insrucion (POI). I focus my changes on he counerinsurgency componen of insrucion because no only is i he new focus of he Army as a whole bu i has also been radiionally he hardes area o each, undersand, and hen apply o he acical environmen. We have wihin he Army a sraegic bias owards undersanding one side of he insurgency/coin equaion. When David Galula wroe Counerinsurgency Warfare he did so because he believed ha here was pleny of research on insurgencies bu no nearly enough on how o figh insurgencies, he COIN side. I would argue ha oday, we have overdeveloped he COIN side and virually abandoned he core reason for needing COIN in he firs place he insurgency side. For hese reasons, I have placed my focus on revisiing COIN POI wihin MIOBC. The heoreical foundaions for COIN ha sudens in MIOBC are augh oday are inadequae for a horough and complee undersanding of he operaional environmen. This inadequacy can lead o analysis failure which in urn leads o decision making failures for commanders down range. There are only hree days of insrucion on he heoreical foundaions for undersanding boh insurgency and COIN. Of hose hree days, he hird only occurs roughly en days afer sudens have already spen hose days

4 applying wha meager heoreical principles hey have learned o pracical exercises Module B Inro o Mod B/ Insurge ncy and COIN/ Assign Irregula r Warfare Case Sudies B-1 Irregular Warfare Case Sudies (IWCS) Prep/ SACSO/ Inel COIN Book Discuss ion B-2 Inro ni ng / Urban IPB/ Quiz 1 Sudy Focus B-3* Quiz 1/ IED Awaren ess/ MPG 'Scorpi ons' TDG B-4* Colleci on Manag emen (PIR) B-5* Colleci on Manage men (PIR/NAI / ISM) B-6* Analyi cal Tools & IWCS Suden Check B-7* Exam ple BUB & II and PE (BUB 1) B-8* Analy s Noe book/ ARC GIS/ Dese r B-9* Pahfi nder/ (12-24 Dec) B-10* (BUB 2 Bn MB) B-11* Info 3 Ops and oher paric ipan s in COIN / ACH/ Quiz 2 Sud y Focu s B-12* Quiz 2 IWCS Briefs / n ing (25-26 Dec) (BUB 3 PMB) Quiz 3 Sudy Focus B-13* COIN Targei ng/ Final Tes Sudy Focus B-14* Quiz 3 B-15 Mod B Final Tes (BUB 4) Mod B AAR B-16* While echnically, we are augh boh insurgency and COIN heory, he lion s share of emphasis is placed on COIN. Addiionally, wha we are augh wih regards o insurgency heory rarely exends beyond basic descripions and generalizaions. Even when sudens are asked o sudy a selecion of 20 h cenury insurgencies in deph, here is a noiceable avoidance of he massive elephan in he room ha insurgencies hisorically develop wihin marginalized and oppressed peoples. Raher han focus on he dispariies in power and he roo causes of poliical frusraion ha spark and fuel insurgencies, eachers lead sudens o examine he case sudies from he poin of view of he COIN side, ineviably a major Wesern power. While he lessons of former Wesern powers fighing insurgencies are invaluable for he Unied Saes in boh Iraq and Afghanisan oday, he lessons o be learned from he insurgens hemselves are jus as much so if no more imporan. In order o undersand he insurgency side beer, I believe we have o urn o heory and focus on auhors who wrie from he perspecive of he marginalized peoples who have conribued so grealy o low inensiy conflic worldwide. A good heoreical undersanding offers us definiional precision which in urn aids wih research and comprehension. Poliical science and poliical heory offer major conribuions o COIN

5 heory by providing alernaive undersandings of poliics, power, sovereigny, and many of he oher core conceps in COIN heory. Inernaional relaions heories can help explain conflic as a whole while oher heories, such as Marxism and poscolonialism ofen address he roo inequaliies ha spur ideological fervor wihin violence. Economic developmen heoriss have valuable insighs for grass roos economic developmen. Feminis auhors, by virue of heir emphasis on including women as research variables, have showed how imporan women, even in heavily pariarchal socieies, are o he enire fabric of sociey. Wihou he conribuions of hese feminis scholars, i would have aken policy makers far longer o undersand he need o focus on boh genders in developing socieies. Of course, his is simply a sampling of wha heoriss from various backgrounds, from poliics o economics o sociology and psychology, have o offer o undersanding insurgencies and by exension, he COIN figh. Finally, while heories hemselves help us undersand he significance of cerain evens, undersanding he heories ha key decision makers subscribe o can help us no only undersand heir decisions bu predic heir fuure decisions as well. To address he curren shorcomings wihin he course and o incorporae he addiional viewpoins oulined above, I believe ha MIOBC needs a new, inensive reading mini-course ha brings in auhors who specialize in insurgency heory, marginalized/indigenous peoples, alernaive hisories, culural and area sudies, linguisic sudies, and oher areas radiionally ignored by miliary sraegiss and analyss because of a sraegic bias in American miliary circles. The addiional reading course will be incorporaed hrough a reading cycle ha requires sudens o complee a cerain amoun of reading prior o arriving a OBC. The MIOBC course manager can have he various

6 pre-commissio sources disseminae he reading lis o fuure MI cades and officer candidaes. The MIOBC course manager migh also make he readings available hrough he course websie. Once a OBC, sudens will hen be guided hrough heir readings by eachers wih academic, no miliary, backgrounds. Discussion will occur in small groups and follow-on reading assignmens will be given hroughou he week. Finally, suden assessmens will be hrough essay quesions insead of muliple choice quizzes. These shor and long answer essay quesions can beer assess each suden s abiliy o apply he heoreical readings o a acical environmen. For example, sudens migh be asked o read message raffic and make an assessmen of enemy moives and likely courses of acion and hen mus jusify heir assessmens using he relevan daa as well as applicable heoreical sources. In addiion o essay quizzes hroughou he block, sudens will engage in a final capsone exercise ha, like he JICTC exercise, immerses hem in an insrucor creaed scenario bu his ime, he exercise will immerse sudens wihin a mock insurgency. Currenly, sudens undergo a half day pracical exercise called Scorpion Tacical Decision Game. Wihin he expanded block of insurgency/coin insrucion, Scorpion TDG would become grealy expanded. Much like he ISR village scenario, sudens will ake on cerain roles bu hey will hen be asked o develop for hemselves an insurgency. The sudens playing insurgens will have o jusify why hey made he decisions hey did while ohers playing he mass base mus jusify why hey did or did no suppor he insurgency. Those playing he incumben power will have o jusify heir reacions and couner reacions o insurgen aciviy. The oal ime for he exercise should be no less han 36 hours. This exercise will require a leas 30 hours of full, 100% characer

7 immersion followed by a 4 hour suden evaluaion and exercise AAR. The remai 2 hours can be devoed o preparing. In order o expand insurgency/coin heoreical insrucion from hree days o seven wihou exending he overall lengh of MIOBC, some sacrifices mus be made in oher areas. I do no mean o imply ha here are some segmens of MIOBC ha are less useful han ohers bu here currenly is a grea deal of redundancy n insrucion. I ve oulined below where redundancy occurs in he course. The circled areas are days of insrucion where lessons are redundan wih lessons covered earlier in he course or can be beer organized o minimize he ime spen on hose lessons. The pracical exercises during Module B can be compressed so ha sudens are required o give wo Bale Updae Briefs a day insead of one. This forces sudens o be more efficien wih heir ime, produce analysis and producs under sringen ime consrains, and demands ha sudens operae under more sressful condiions. This compression would yield one day. If we compress he CI/HUMINT, SIGINT, and GEOINT briefs in he week prior o and in preparaion for JICTC, we can easily gain an

8 addiional wo days. Currenly, he briefs are much oo long in lengh and he amoun of ime spen on he maerial is no commensurae wih he acual amoun of informaion passed along o sudens. This is poenially he resul of a generaional gap beween insrucors and sudens; for MIOBC sudens fully immersed in an inerne culure, GEOINT and NRO briefs ha go over ad nauseum how o download images from a websie is clearly unnecessary. Finally, having already gone hrough he asse briefs prior o JICTC, sudens in MIOBC do no need he repea briefs given a JICTC which cover he exac same informaion already briefed. This would curail he JICTC in processing days from wo o one and yield anoher day for insurgency/coin insrucion. The desired end sae for expanding insurgency/coin insrucion is as saed earlier ha all graduaes of MIOBC become premier analyss in he same way ha sudens who complee he Van Deman Program are expeced o be. Premier analyss no only have a beer undersanding and analysis of insurgen shor, inermediae, and long erm goals bu hey can beer serve heir commanders as red-eamers during he war gaming porion of he MDMP. The broader heoreical undersanding can equip MIOBC graduaes o hink ouside of he box when producing non-lehal arges. Because of he mulivariae naure of conducing IPB for he urban environmen, MIOBC graduaes wih a more horough undersanding of all heoreical underpins of social neworks and poliical processes are beer equipped o provide a more in-deph analysis of he urban operaional environmen. And finally, in he long erm, as MIOBC graduaes advance hrough heir careers, hey can spearhead he docrinal shif necessary wihin he Army o help all soldiers in every branch undersand boh sides of he COIN figh.