U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Handbook

By U.S. Department of the Army

Book Overview

The life of a counterintelligence (CI) operative has been immortalized in film and novels as being filled with glamour and excitement. While international travel, heroism, and danger are all part of the job description, the fundamentals of counterintelligence are discipline, skill, and--well--intelligence. CI operations include conducting investigations, offensive and defensive operations, security and vulnerability analyses, and intelligence collection in peace and at all levels of conflict to support command needs. This guide serves to inform commanders, agents, and analysts on how to identify, neutralize, and exploit any foreign attempts to conduct operations against the U.S. Army. Find out how CI operatives combat terrorism, create battlefield deception, and inform all echelons of combat of both real and potential threats from the U.S. Army's own guide to counterintelligence. The tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) outlined are the same instructions that CI personnel follow in the field. As the world becomes more interconnected and as technological advances continue to be made, proper CI techniques are exceedingly critical to the protection of the U.S. Army. Counterintelligence is not just the subject for an entertaining story, it is how peacekeeping, humanitarian, and counter-drug operations are carried out in this globalized world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1620874784
• ISBN13: 9781620874783
• Release Date: February 2013
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Insightful and comprehensive

The Counterinsurgency Field Manual is a surprisingly well considered text on the nature of insurgency and the points where the course of an insurgency can be influenced. Something is (or should be) rather confusing about the U.S. military. Since the inception of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, the U.S. military has been involved with counterinsurgency operations almost constantly, at home and abroad. (Put this way, Americans were waging counterinsurgency since before there was a United States; the French and Indian War...) What is confusing is 'why isn't the U.S. better at it?' Setting this underlying question to one side, this text sets forth a framework for understanding the causes of insurgencies, and for dealing with them. The full scope of cultural, economic, social, political, and other factors are addressed in considerable detail, along with approaches to influencing these factors to address the root causes of insurgency. It is a robust, comprehensive work that can provide an adaptable conceptual structure for anyone involved in counterinsurgency or issues relating to counterinsurgency. The big question in my mind; Why did the Army have to manage developing this process, when more than half the work required to respond to an insurgency should be done or overseen by the State Department? Why do soldiers have to arrange economic reconstruction and infrastructure development? Aren't those folks at the State Department competent to do all this stuff? E.M. Van Court