US Counterinsurgency Doctrine, Practice, and the Afghanistan Case: Dr. Terry Tucker

                                       Terry Tucker and Afghan Interpreter, 2011

A woman begs in bombed city 

US Counterinsurgency Doctrine is a synthesis of lessons learned over the century, and continues to be a dynamic process. Dr. Terry Tucker, of the Army Lessons Learned division of the Department of Defense, is also a war historian. After 54 months in Afghanistan training Afghani and Coalition Forces, Dr. Tucker now synthesizes Lessons Learned using his intake work with returning troops, trains deploying troops and works to advance the effectiveness of Counterinsurgency.

In this Policy Pace interview with Paula LeRoy, MAIPS Security and Development from Monterey Institute of International Studies, Dr. Tucker gives examples of counterinsurgency principles and practices and particularly elaborates on the Afghanistan counterinsurgency operations. With candor about the mistakes made, regime change, future outlook, and stabilization difficulties, the Afghanistan case is reviewed.

Click here to download the hour long interview.

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Afghanistan: Progress and Inadequacies of US Involvement: COIN expert Terry Tucker

Lessons learned COIN expert Dr. Terry Tucker, expands the breadth of knowledge commonly available about US presence in Afghanistan. In this interview with Policy Pace, he details counterinsurgency pitfalls, challenges, ethics, and successes.  Other topics include hard power vs. soft power, rule of law, intricacies of training the Afghan police and military, proliferation of small arms, forming the new government, development  changes in gender based approaches, pacing and inclusion. Former Commander, Tucker also instructs us about the technical military structures that dictate the principles, constraints, mandates, and counterinsurgency techniques.

The information shared today is based on 51 months in Afghanistan training the Afghan police and national guard, interfacing with NGO’s and civilian leaders as well as  two years of employment with Army Lessons Learned as a policy analyst.  Presently, part of Dr. Tucker’s duties include interviewing returning troops and training deploying troops during which he stresses cultural and linguistic understanding, soft power skills, and the transmission of lessons learned.

Interview available at soundcloud.com/policypace/counterinsurgency-in