Coin Leadership

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US Army Combined Arms Center

UNCLASSIFIED/FOUO As of 8 Jan 09

Leadership in COINOperations

An Old Concept in a New Age orDelegating to the Point of

Discomfort

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Purpose

To highlight the unique challenges of

leadership in a COIN environment.

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Areas of Discussion

Traditional Leadership

Insurgent Strategy The moral/ dimension of

Counterinsurgencies

Conventional VS COIN Environment

Leadership Issues in Coin

The ABCs of COIN Leadership Suggested Best Practices

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Leadership Traits

What are the traits of a great leader?

Competent

Honest

Selfless

Trusts his/her Subordinates


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It is far more effective to attack an opponents

strategy than his Army .

- Sun Tzu


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Fighting to the Taliban's Game Plan

What the Taliban wants us to do:

Chase illiterate teenage boys around the countryside(waste thousands of manpower hours on sweep

operations). Kill them inside villages with collateral damage. Make cultural mistakes, lose hearts and minds. Lose sight of our game plan to win. Get tired and go home.


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The core of the difficulty is neithermilitary nor political but moral.

Martin Van Creveld the The Changing Face of War 2007

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Russian forces 1980

Russian forces 1989


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"When a child is killed in one of these villages, that village is lost

for 100 years. These places run on revenge."Pakistani diplomat, ICG Report, August2003

...burning Taliban bodies, Koran desecration, Abu Graib, Iraq invasion,Bagram deaths, shooting up wedding parties, Guantanamo, Haditha, civiliancasualties...


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COIN Failure Ireland 1922

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TheBritishinreprisalstarta

counterterrorprogrammatching

terrorforterror.Reprisalsaretaken

againstthepopulation,homesare

burned,crowds

are

fired

upon.

The

IRAarebattledtoastalemate,but

theBritishpublicabandonsthe

fightsickenedbywhattheyhad

become.

TheIrishrebelin1916

butfail.Keyleadership

escapesandtheIRA

beginsarenewed

insurgency,with

bettertraining,tactics

andintelligence.


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COIN Success Story Ireland 2007

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TheBritishdidnotalienatethe

peoplebythemid90stheIRA

hadbeguntoexperiencedifficulty

innewrecruitingtoreplacethose

whohad

been

killed

or

jailed

or

left

oftheirownaccord.MartinVanCreveldtheTheChangingFaceofWar2007

FirstClasstraining

strictdiscipline,high

professionalism,and

superbleadership.MartinVanCreveldtheTheChangingFaceofWar2007


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Conduct of Troops During Operations

Rules of Conduct:

1. There shall be no confiscation whatever from the poor

peasantry.2. If you borrow anything, return it.

3. Replace all articles you damage.

4. Pay fairly for everything that you purchase.5. Be honest in all transactions with the peasants.

6. Be courteous and polite to the people and help themwhen you can.

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Mao Tse-tung, 1928


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Leadership Issues in COIN

Commanders and other leaders will be challenged by theunique demands of counterinsurgency.

In-depth understanding of the operational environment

is an absolute necessity to recognize who is the enemy,when and where to fight, and when other activities aremore valuable.

COIN

103REF:FM324,Chap7 12


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Traditional Leadership Environment

Shoot

Move Communicate

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Techno logy as the force mult ip l ier


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COIN Leadership Environment

Presence

Patience Persistence

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Winning is a Western concept ; prog ress can be made, bu t i t takes

t ime

Afghanistan 1830s

Afghanistan 2004

"It seems this place hasn't changed very muchsince Kipling. This place is like the last

frontier."

Private Gary Holt 1-87, 10th MD


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What to expect in a COIN Environment

What youll see

What youll be doing What youll think

COIN103

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What youll see

Leadership challenges that never surfaced

in pre-deployment preparation Third world squalor, disease, dysfunction,

animosity

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Stressors

Exposure to a strange and unfamiliarculture

Work with people whom you dontunderstand and who dont understand you

Work with forces outside of your unit with

whom you have had little exposure orexperience

Work with NGOs, IO and HN organizations

Jobs that you think are outside yourMOS/career field

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Other Players

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Preconceived Notions

Technology is king

Ill never get it Nothing can be done

HN soldiers/police/civiliansare lazy/stupid/corrupt

The unit you RIP are idiots

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The Army will need leaders of

uncommon agil ity, resourcefulness

and imagination, leaders willing and

able to think and act creatively and

decisively in a different kind of world

and a different kind of conflict than we

have prepared for over the last six

decades

-Secretary of Defense Robert GatesWest Point, 22 Apri l 2008

The Era of Persistent Conflict

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The

Of COIN Leadership

BalancedCreative

Adaptive

s

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CulturallyAttunedSituationallyAwareActiveCommunicatorsCriticalReasonersFullSpectrum

AdaptiveLeaders On a recent afternoon, he checked on refurbished water

pumps for farmers and approvedmoney to connect the pumping

station there were soccer

uniforms to be dropped off for acommunity team, heated disputes

to resolve, an influential sheik to

visit. " It is purely my fight in myarea of operation," [CPT] Gilbert

said.

- NYT 3/21/0822


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BalancedWarriorsPersonalBalanceExperientialBalance

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CreativeThinkersInnovativeProblemSolvers

"They give us a chunk

of land and say, 'Fix it,"

said Captain RichThompson, 36, who

controls an area east of

Baghdad.

- NYT 3/21/08

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The complexity, unpredictability,

and ambiguity of postwar Iraq is

producing company grade officerswho are accustomed to operating

independently, taking the initiative,

and adapting to changes. the Army

must now acknowledge and

encourage this newly developed

adaptability in our junior officers or

risk sti fling the innovation criticallyneeded in the Armys future leaders.

Developing Adaptive Leaders

Dr. Lenny Wong, 2004

The Company Fight

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Best Practices

Delegate to the point of discomfort

Task and purpose Dont stand in the way of a solution

Resource to succeed

Do less, mentor more

Professional development

Underwrite reasonable risk

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Best Practices

Be a role model for you troops and HN

Be ethical, you set the tone

Get out amongst your soldiers, the people inyour AOR

Be agile and adaptive Be self aware/360 degree assessment

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Questions?

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UNCLASSIFIED/FOUO A f 8 J 09


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Leadership in COIN

Tactical Decision Game



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Scenario

A market bordering the MSRthat supplies your company isthe site of increasingly

frequent IED attacks. Youhave canvassed themerchants, but none claims tohave seen anything, even

though some attacks haveoccurred in broad daylight.Your company wants to takedecisive action. How do theoperational environment andleadership principles influenceyour course of action?

.5km

1km0

I

MSR

IED

IED

IED

IED

IED

IED

IED



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Scenario

Your unit operates area of operationswith a strong Al Qaeda presence and

few host nation forces. An insurgentleader approaches, requesting amnestyfor his fighters in exchange for

information. You know that thisinsurgent leader is responsible for thedeaths of soldiers in your unit and units

that preceded you? What do you do?



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One Solution

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Coin Leadership

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