The RAND Corporation has been studying strategies for using the American military in the Global War on Terror. A new report focuses on how to operate in "weak" countries where terrorists can thrive.
Increasingly, however, U.S. military forces will need to fight al Qaeda and other groups in countries that do not support terrorism but are too weak militarily or politically to counter such groups on their own. Examples include the Philippines and Yemen. U.S. operations in these countries will look less like traditional warfare and more like what has been called “nation assistance,” “foreign internal defense,” and counterinsurgency.Posted by Alan at December 22, 2003 12:01 PMRAND Project AIR FORCE studied effective counterinsurgency operations to derive concepts for likely U.S. strategy against terrorist groups abroad. The central lessons are as follows:
- Host governments, not the United States, should play the leading role in hunting down terrorists.
- Terrorists should be subjected to relentless pressure by host government forces so that they cannot determine the tempo and timing of operations.
- Effective counterterrorist operations will be “information intensive,” relying on accurate information about the activities, locations, and identities of terrorists.
- Most important, host governments should seek to win the support of their populations, thus alienating terrorists from potential sources of support.Based on these concepts, the primary role of U.S. military forces will often be to train, equip, advise, and assist host country forces in rooting out terrorist groups. U.S. forces will be called upon to forge strong relationships with host-country personnel, to show great discretion in their conduct of operations, to maintain a low profile in the host country, and to be able to react swiftly and effectively when promising targets arise.
Summary and full report via RAND