THESIS PROPOSAL

Counter insurgency principles for contemporary internal conflict

OUTLINE

Introduction, background, research problem, objectives, significance, scope and limitations are discussed in chapter one. Chapter two deals with literature review, in that I will make attempt to bring forward the literature related to the study such as definitions, concepts adopted by different countries fight against insurgents and way of counter insurgency principles adopted during those battles. The methodology, research question, and introduction to chapters is described in chapter three, Chapter four discusses counter insurgency warfare through the case studies in relation to counter insurgency principles focusing case studies of Malayan, Kenya, Vietnam, Afghan, and Iraq was conducted by the British and USA. Chapter five will cover Sri Lankan war dividing into two parts as pre 2007 and post 2007 in relation to counter insurgency principles as case studies. Chapter six will exhibit data presentation, analysis and findings which includes views and details of interviews and questioner. Chapter seven includes findings and discussion related to the study and final chapter will be recommendations and conclusion.

I INTRODUCTION

MAJOR RESEARCH QUESTION

This research will strive to answer “What enables Sri Lanka to finally defeat the LTTE after three decades of conflict? In answering this question, the research will also answer why do certain state-level insurgencies survive numerous decades without significant government progress towards ending the insurgent movements? Secondly, is the duration of internal conflict a symptom of inadequate or failed state counterinsurgency practices? This study attempts to address these questions by utilizing counterinsurgency principles to evaluate state effectiveness across cases and determine common failures in state counterinsurgency response and also examine the factors, which directly and indirectly affected for the success of the operation and relation of those to the counter insurgency principles to find out the relevance in order to revise and refine the counter insurgency principles.

The prevalence of conflict and civil war has gained much attention from the international community. The non-state actors, insurgents, and their supporters have repeatedly challenged the writ of the governments. How the nations have managed to deal with insurgents is an important question within the framework of international relations. Is the nation, capable of confronting the civil war or ethnic conflict is yet another question that needs to be addressed? On the strategic level, we need to delve deep into and analyze the factors influencing such activities on part of insurgents. Countries need to develop adequate policies to combat insurgency. In this regard, an important question is to address the political and legal framework should be used to tackle the situation.

With the advent of American civil war, researchers tended to condense their focus on the reasons influencing the outbreak of wars within regions, controlled by the same country. Wars or conflicts inflicted within regions of a particular country, have proved to be lethal in nature and in some cases, these conflicts have resulted in toppling of a regime. Such inter-regional wars and conflicts pose a real threat to the stability of a nation. That is why it is important to address ...