Modern War: Counter-Insurgency as Malpractice Edward N. Luttwak, Politique étrangère, 4/2006 (winter).'Rebels don't ever win; in fact, most often, they loose. But their defeats couldn't be always attributed to the counter-insurrectional war.'Read full text (70k-pdf)

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The American Generals’ new recommendations on dealing with the Iraqi insurrection may well prove vain. Indeed, they show the reluctance U.S. policy-makers have in governing the invaded territories directly. Yet the means of a successful counter-insurrection are known. They are applicable in Iraq as well as elsewhere, but the refusal, on principle, to enforce them puts the occupier in a difficult position.Edward N. Luttwak, Former Advisor for National Security Council, is Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, DC). He has published many books, as Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, Revised and Enlarged Edition (Belknapp Press, 2002).