Using Foreign Internal Defense and Unconventional Warfare to Conduct Global Counterinsurgency

<p>This monograph examines the use of Foreign Internal Defense (FID) and Unconventional Warfare (UW) as the primary means of preventing global insurgency. The paper is broken into four sections. The History section gives a basic background of Special Operations Forces with emphasis on historical examples relevant to this topic. The historical overview shows that insurgency is an old form of warfare and is traditionally difficult to fight. The history of special operations shows a divergence over the past fifty years that has caused a decreasing capability in executing and coordinating FID and UW operations. Following the history are three recommendations each with internal supporting exposition. Recommendation 1 is to incorporate a FID mindset into military training and education. A FID mindset embraces the concept that in virtually all U.S. operations conducted on foreign soil the ultimate goal is to transition authority to a sovereign Host Nation (HN) that is acceptable to U.S. government policy. By embracing this mindset planners will better be able to shape operations during the high intensity conflict phase in order to better prepare the force for the following stabilizing phases and transfer to civil authority. Recommendation 2 is to remove U.S. Army Special Forces Groups (SFG) from Iraq and Afghanistan in order to use them in a global FID and UW campaigns. The SFGs are the nation's premiere force in conducting FID and UW operations and often do so in direct support of strategic aims and goals. Unfortunately most of our SFGs are currently completely dedicated to Iraq and Afghanistan conducting tactical level missions. This focus on just two countries seriously degrades Special Force's ability to conduct global shaping missions and therefore decreases the global security posture of the U.S. Pulling the SFGs out of Iraq and Afghanistan will allow them to increase their presence globally which leads to better security for the U.S. Recommendation 3 is to</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>