Using Foreign Internal Defense and Unconventional Warfare to Conduct Global Counterinsurgency

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