COIN strategy

" The study stated that when infected by religious extremism, local insurgencies become more violent, resistant to settlement, difficult to defeat and likely to spread. The jihadist appeal to local insurgents is the message that their faith and homelands are under attack by the West and they should join the larger cause of defending Islam. This makes US military intervention not only costly, but risky.

" While the recent military surge his improved security in much of Iraq, "it would be a profound mistake to conclude from it that all the US needs is more military force to defeat Islamist insurgencies."

" The authors estimated that the US would need to add thousands of deployable civilian professionals and billions more in targeted foreign aid to meet counterinsurgency needs. However, such requirements could be halved if US allies and international organisations matched US efforts.

" Cyber-savvy Islamist insurgents have broken US domination in exploiting information. The report proposes ways for the US to improve information networking (accessing and sharing information), cognition (understanding situations and using the information effectively), and psychology (knowing and influencing the population).

" US allies and international organisations have significant capacity in areas where the US is weak including building education, health and justice systems, and training police and gendarmerie forces. While, such allied capabilities are not readily deployable at present, intense planning by NATO, European Union and United Nations agencies could help meet this goal.

Recommended Strategy: The US can be more effective in countering insurgencies in the Muslim world by strengthening its capabilities through:

" Building effective and legitimate local governments.

" Organising, training, equipping and advising indigenous military and police forces.

" Gathering, sharing and exploiting information.