The British Approach to Counterinsurgency: From Malaya and Northern Ireland to Iraq and Afghanistan

456 Pages·2012·2.04 MB·English

by  Paul Dixon (eds.)

The British Approach to Counterinsurgency
Also by Paul Dixon
NORTHERN IRELAND: The Politics of War and Peace
NORTHERN IRELAND SINCE 1969 (with Eamonn O’Kane)
The British Approach to
Counterinsurgency
From Malaya and Northern Ireland to
Iraq and Afghanistan
Edited by
Paul Dixon
Reader in Politics and International Studies, Kingston University, UK
Palgrave
macmillan
Editorial matter and selection, introduction, conclusion and selected
chapters © Paul Dixon 2012
All remaining chapters © respective authors 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-29347-2
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and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-33297-7 ISBN 978-1-137-28468-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137284686
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A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Acknowledgements viii
Notes on Contributors x
Abbreviations and Acronyms xiii
1 The British Approach to Counterinsurgency: 1
‘Hearts and Minds’ from Malaya to Afghanistan?
Paul Dixon
Part I Analysing British Counterinsurgency 49
2 Beyond Hearts and Minds: Perspectives on 51
Counterinsurgency
Paul Dixon
3 Britain’s Vietnam Syndrome: Perspectives on British 90
Counterinsurgency, the Media and Public Opinion
Paul Dixon
4 Bringing It All Back Home: The Militarisation of 112
Britain and the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
Paul Dixon
5 A Feminist Approach to British Counterinsurgency 147
Claire Duncanson and Hilary Cornish
6 Baha Mousa and the British Army in Iraq 173
Huw Bennett
Part II Case Studies: Malaya to Afghanistan 205
7 Using and Abusing the Past: The Malayan Emergency 207
as Counterinsurgency Paradigm
Karl Hack
8 Dirty Wars: Counterinsurgency from Vietnam to 243
Afghanistan
David Hunt
v
vi Contents
9 ‘Hearts and Minds’: British Counterinsurgency Strategy 265
in Northern Ireland
Paul Dixon
10 Counterinsurgency and Human Rights in Northern 291
Ireland
Brice Dickson
11 Counterinsurgency amidst Fragmentation: The British 314
in Southern Iraq
Glen Rangwala
12 Countering the Afghan Insurgency: Three Lessons 337
Learned
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles
13 Conclusion: The Military and British Democracy 352
Paul Dixon
Index 384
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
1.1 Soldier and marine reporting of battlefield ethics 23
violations
1.2 Soldier and marine attitudes towards the treatment 23
of insurgents and non-combatants
7.1 Narrative of the campaign 211
7.2 Yearly emergency incidents 215
7.3 Yearly total security casualties 215
7.4 Emergency monthly statistics for 1952 225
7.5 Emergency contacts – Monthly rates calculated as 228
averages for six-month periods, and plotted at the
mid-point
7.6 and 7.7 Propaganda Leaflet 1534 of January 1953 232
Tables
1.1 The diversity of ‘counterinsurgency’ operations 4
1.2 Battlefield ethics: US soldiers, Operation Iraqi Freedom 24
1.3 Winning hearts and minds? Declining support for 37
NATO/ISAF military forces among Afghans, 2006–10
1.4 Afghan views of UK, US and Germany 38
(Favourable/Unfavourable)
4.1 Military fatalities, casualties and wounded in 122
Afghanistan and British public opinion
4.2 The attitudes of public opinion in selected NATO 140
countries towards Afghanistan 2010: Number of troops
deployed compared to optimism/pessimism about the
conflict and attitude towards troop levels
13.1 Perspectives on counterinsurgency and British 371
democracy
vii
Acknowledgements
This volume has its origins in a conference ‘“Hearts and Minds”? British
counterinsurgency from Malaya to Iraq’, which was jointly organised
by Kingston University and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI),
21 September 2007. Conference details and podcasts are available at
http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum= 533. In partic-
ular I would like to thank my co-organisers at RUSI, Michael Codner and
Louise Heywood, and Kingston University’s Lisa Hall for helping to put on
such a valuable event. There were many participants at that conference
who contributed ideas that have gone into the current volume. Thanks to
General Sir Mike Jackson for the opening address and speakers at the con-
ference: Brigadier (retd.) Gavin Bulloch; Karin Christiansen; Professor
Michael Clarke; Michael Codner; Dr Eric Herring; Professor Hew Strachan;
Lieutenant Colonel (retd.) Jim Storr; and Professor Charles Townshend.
Earlier versions of some of the papers in this volume were pub-
lished in the Journal of Strategic Studiesin June 2009. I’d like to thank
the editors and anonymous referees at the Journal of Strategic Studiesfor
their input. Dr Joseph Maiolo was very encouraging in guiding the
development of that special issue. A further seven chapters have
been added. I would also like to thank all the contributors. This book
has been a while coming and I’m grateful for the patience of the con-
tributors. I do hope they feel that it has been a worthwhile project.
I have benefited from some excellent feedback on earlier drafts of
my chapters. Thanks to Brigadier Neil Baverstock, Colonel David Benest,
Dr Huw Bennett, Professor Brice Dickson, Dr Jonathan Gilmore, Dr Karl
Hack, Neil Mackinnon, Dr Piers Robinson and Dr Eric Sangar. Colonel
David Benest has been a most stimulating correspondent and came to
Kingston University on a couple of occasions to present his fascinating
research, including his seminal piece on ‘Atrocities in British Counter-
insurgencies’, Royal United Services Journal, June 2011. Dr Huw Bennett
also deserves a special mention for his pioneering work on British counter-
insurgency and generosity in sharing his expertise. Thank you also to
David French who allowed me to see an early version of his outstanding
book, The British Way in Counterinsurgency, 1945–67(2011). There were
opportunities to float some of the ideas in this book at a seminar at
Sandhurst organised by Dr Aaron Edwards. I also learnt much from a
viii
Acknowledgements ix
conference ‘“Butcher and Bolt” or “Hearts and Minds”? British Ways
of Countering Colonial Revolt: A Historical Perspective’ organised by
Dr Matthew Huges, Brunel University, held at the Institute for Historical
Research, London. I am grateful to the ‘War Studies’ students at Kings
College London, particularly Jo Painter, for the opportunity to present
and then refine some of the arguments in this book.
Thanks also to the School of Social Sciences at Kingston University
which gave me a sabbatical that allowed me to work on this book.
Kingston University’s librarians were very industrious in tracking down
sources. Jan Erik Mustad invited me to the University of Agder’s Research
Centre in Lesvos which helped to accelerate writing at a vital stage in
the book’s development. I’m grateful to Jan Erik, Tormod and the faculty
from Agder who made me feel so welcome. Palgrave Macmillan – Chris-
tina Brian, Julia Willan and Harriet Barker – have been very understand-
ing publishers and I am grateful for the flexibility they have shown me
in the twists and turns that have led to the final book. Shirley Tan of
Expo Holdings was a very efficient and conscientious project manager.
Antony Horton took the burden of indexing this book off my shoulders
and has again done an excellent job. Ingrid Connell offered wise advice
on the cover and other matters.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles’ chapter is an edited excerpt and reprinted
by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd © 2011, Sir Sherard
Cowper-Coles, Cables from Kabul. I am also grateful to Taylor and Francis
(www.tandfonline.com) for permission to use material that was originally
published in a Special Issue of the Journal of Strategic Studies (volume 32,
no. 3, June 2009) by Dixon, Hack, Dickson and Rangwala. All efforts were
made to contact the US Army Medical Department to seek permission
to reproduce their tables in Chapter 1. Thank you to the trustees of
the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives for giving permission to
use the Malayan Emergency Poster reproduced in ‘Using and Abusing
the Past: The Malayan Emergency as Counterinsurgency Paradigm’.
On a more personal note, Yansy and Bev have been an enormous help
during the period in which this book was written. Friends and family
have rallied round to lend their support and I’m most impressed by their
generosity of spirit. Paul ‘Magsy’ Maguire has been better than a brother
to me. I’m grateful to him and his family for their friendship and
support. Wimbledon Hockey Club and London Itinerants Cricket Club
have provided a welcome diversion from writing. It might not have been
the great escape but we made it under the wire.