Countering Insurgency In South Asia: Three Approaches

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Countering Insurgency In South Asia: Three Approaches
by Brigadier General Amrit Pal Singh

The challenge of counter-insurgency (COIN) is urgent for the security and stability in South Asia. Pakistan, Afghanistan and India have been grappling with insurgency with mixed and gradual success. This paper offers three different approaches to the study of COIN in South Asia, contrasting ISAF-led efforts to tackle the Taliban in Afghanistan, with the Pakistani and Indian experiences to deal with local insurgencies, including in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Jammu and Kashmir. These three approaches are evaluated across eight different dimensions, including the doctrine, experience and scope of COIN activities; operational preferences and traditions; paramilitary organizational innovations; use of supportive force such as air power, artillery and technology; the political dimensions and civil-military relations; and strategies of reconstruction and reconciliation. The findings suggest that while non-institutionalized and diffuse, the Indian experience is not only in line with, but also holds valuable lessons for U.S. COIN objectives in Afghanistan and perhaps also Pakistan.

Introduction

This paper focuses on three "live" cases in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (which has had more than one ongoing insurgency). The name given to the operations to counter the variants of insurgency differs from Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) in Pakistan and India, who tend to follow the British nomenclature, to Counter-Insurgency (COIN) a term of American origin. Regardless of the name or term applied, the importance of the strategic and political context and the operational strategy of these "small wars" are reflected upon, as is the nature of the insurgents and the internal and external support they receive.

The U.S. is currently focused on assisting Afghanistan in establishing a form of governance that is stable, thereby denying terror groups a base to operate from. In India the focus of the government is to provide governance, which fosters economic growth and livelihood to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, along with pacifying the lingering insurgencies of the Northeastern region or in the Naxalite heartland along a belt in Eastern India. Pakistan is involved in an internal struggle to tame multifaceted terror unleashed by years of providing support to proxy insurgents in neighboring Afghanistan and India. The three different approaches to COIN reflect wide variation, but also the potential of commonalities and lessons for the future.

This paper analyses three different approaches to COIN in South Asia, contrasting the ISAF-led efforts to tackle the Taliban in Afghanistan, with the Pakistani and Indian experiences to deal with local insurgencies, including in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and in Jammu and Kashmir. These three approaches are evaluated across eight different dimensions, including the doctrine, experience and scope of COIN activities; operational preferences and traditions; paramilitary organizational innovations; use of supportive force such as air power, artillery and technology; the political dimensions and civil-military relations; and strategies of reconstruction and reconciliation.

The findings suggest that while non-institutionalized and diffuse, the historical Indian experience holds valuable lessons for U.S. COIN objectives in Afghanistan, and perhaps also in Pakistan.

Read on here:

Countering Insurgency In South Asia: Three Approaches | Small Wars Journal
Brigadier General Amrit Pal Singh

Brigadier General Amrit Pal Singh is a serving Indian military officer pursuing an Executive Masters degree in Intelligence Analysis at the University of Maryland. His wide-ranging 30-year long service in the Indian Army included responsibilities as a peacekeeper with the United Nations in Liberia and as a director in the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, New Delhi. He has been awarded two Masters degrees, one in Political Science from Osmania University, Hyderabad, and another one in Defense and Strategic Studies from The University of Madras, Chennai. He has published insights and comments in various defense and security journals.


A very astute and incisive analysis of the insurgencies in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan and the difference in approach to the same.

Worth a read and comment by all those who are interested in following the events in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan
 

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