Thinks Like a Cop, Fights Like a Marine

摘要

In the post Cold War era, the world has seen a dramatic shift in who makes war, why it is made, and upon whom war is made. The trend in the last half century has been a crescendo in conflict of a more fragmented nature, Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW). War is increasingly less the pastime of the state, but rather, a tool for the disenfranchised, disaffected, and dissatisfied. While the United States enters the seventh year of warfare with various non-state entities it continues to search for a tidy little box in which to classify counterinsurgency operations (COIN). Since patterns of violence and structure in organized crime and gangs share characteristics with the twenty-first century insurgency, tactical successes of law enforcement provide insight into useful thought processes for COIN. In order to succeed in COIN environments, the Marine Corps must move beyond force protection, capitalize on similarities between insurgents and transnational gangs, and adopt lessons learned by domestic law enforcement.