Expanding the Role of a Company Commander in a COIN Environment

摘要

Counterinsurgency operations (COIN) require leaders to be 'pentathletes': warfighters, info gatherers, infrastructure builders, humanitarians. This is the reason for which the current manifestation of counterinsurgency (COIN) warfighting is a combination of military, intelligence, and government agencies. In Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, maneuver units, special operations forces, civil affairs specialists, psychological operations detachments, international development agencies, and intelligence and advisory elements all operate simultaneously along the same lines without synchronizing effects among parallel units or commands. In a COIN environment, in order to obtain support among the population and build trust the company commander must expand his role beyond the military to include civilian operations.