The Foreign Service Journal, September 2009

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 he United States government’s responses to the challenges of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the concomitant resurgence of interest in the nature of insurgencies, have led experts to revisit some of the fundamental precepts of classical counterinsurgency theory. Among the most enduring of these is the principle that an insurgency can only be defeated through a combination of political and military means. That is, improving the security of the local pop- ulation and winning its support for the central government is — at its core — a political process. F O C U S O N D I P L OM AT S I N C O N F L I C T Z O N E S T HE D IPLOMAT AS C OUNTERINSURGENT C IVILIANS MUST BECOME AS CONVERSANT WITH THE FUNDAMENTALS OF COUNTERINSURGENCY WARFARE AS OUR MILITARY COUNTERPARTS ALREADY ARE . B Y K URT A MEND Brian Hubble T