Canada's Voice in U.S. Counterinsurgency Centre

The U.S. Army and U.S. Marines have set up an interesting blog hosted by the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency (COIN) Center, whose role is:

“…. to improve U.S. military counterinsurgency capabilities. The COIN Center is a collaborative “Land Service” activity that provides assistance to Army & USMC components in implementation/ application of the body of thought contained in FM 3-24 in order to improve US ground forces’ capability to operate in a full spectrum COIN environment. It is also the primary focal point for CAC matters involving COIN operations.”

Over the past several weeks, “COIN Center Branch Chief and Canadian Exchange Officer” LCOL John Malevich has been sharing his insights and experiences from previous ROTOs in Afghanistan.

"Where are the Afghan Inglorious Bastards?"

"COIN Ain't Cheap: Warlords Aren't Warriors and High-Tech Don't Work"

"Using Tribal Networks to Protect the Population: Does It Work?"

“Fraud, Corruption, Power, Elections: Why it is Important to COIN”

“Taliban promise to derail elections in Afghanistan could blow up in their faces”

“Afghanistan Elections: Guns, and Money”

“More Taliban Propaganda”

“Assessing Success in COIN”

A bit of LCOL Malevich’s background, from an article published earlier this summer:

“One of the central figures steering the Canada-US COIN-synergy is Lt. Col. John Malevich, who joined the COIN Center in November 2008 by way of a newly created exchange program between the two countries. He is currently the Deputy-Director of the COIN Center and recently gave a series of COIN lectures in Canada …. Prior to joining the COIN Center, Malevich was a member of the Strategic Advisory Team—a team of military advisors set up by General Hillier to provide direct advice to top Afghan cabinet ministers. He was later seconded to the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission, where Malevich says he “came up with their operations plan and their security plan” for the presidential elections scheduled for August 2009.”

Good to see a way for Canadians to share some lessons learned with the Americans, and vice versa.