A Fearful Symmetry: The New Soldier in the Age of Asymmetric Conflict

摘要

The current conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan have provoked an intellectual revolution within the US military, epitomised by the publication of the joint US Army-Marine Corps (USMC) counter-insurgency doctrine in December 2006. In Britain's case, the three armed services are undergoing a protracted debate about the future of the UK's military, influenced by the botched occupation of south-eastern Iraq, the challenges of fighting in southern Afghanistan, and the current financial crisis. For critics like Gian Gentile, Ralph Peters and Charles Dunlap, the US military's doctrinal focus on counterinsurgency (COIN) and stabilisation has eroded its ability to fight state-based adversaries, with potentially disastrous consequences.