[Richard]

Excellent monograph from the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute which examines how past insurgencies have ended and how current ones may be resolved - identifies four ways in which insurgencies have ended:

• Clear-cut victories for the government (Malaya, Greece, Sri Lanka) or for the insurgents (Palestine, Algeria, Kosovo) - more common during the era of decolonization but seldom happen today.
• Degeneration into criminal organizations that become committed to making money rather than fighting a revolution or evolve into terrorist groups capable of nothing more than sporadic violence (ETA, Shining Path, FARC).
• Co-opting the insurgents (Northern Ireland, El Sal, Sierra Leone) - achieving a strategic stalemate and persuading the belligerents that they have nothing to gain from continued fighting, then drawing the insurgents into the legitimate political process through reform and concessions - a strategy the author argues offers the best hope of U.S. success in Afghanistan and in future counterinsurgency campaigns.

Resolving Insurgencies
Thomas R. Mockaitis - Professor of History at DePaul University who team-teaches terrorism and counterterrorism courses internationally with other experts through the Center for Civil-Military Relations at the Naval Post-Graduate School.

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute...cfm?PubID=1072

Richard