Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents, edited by C. Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly

Counter-insurgency, referred to as COIN with the usual military fondness for abbreviations, is commonly understood as a military-centric effort that seeks to overwhelm the insurgents with superior numbers, firepower, technology, and funds. In countries like India, central paramilitary forces are enjoined to do so. The central premise in traditional COIN discourse is that insurgency is a military problem requiring a military solution. But looking at successful amelioration of insurgent movements, it is clear that COIN requires an approach that attacks the root of the insurgency as well as the immediate problems of security; and such approaches have involved a police-centric doctrine. Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents is a vigorous attempt at documenting this approach.