Beyond military technology, the cultural dimension of counterinsurgency doctrines

In the last two decades, the expression “asymmetric warfare” has been generally adopted with an innovative dimension by the popular imagery to point out the disparity between military means (and tactics) used by conventional and unconventional forces in a low-intensity conflict. Hence, public opinion often links the “new” wars to two warfare phases – the insurgency and the counterinsurgency – not so truly “new” . It is no coincidence that principles to win these wars were identified since the end of the XIXth century , and they did not specifically concern military technology and its innovations. The aim of this paper is to highlight briefly the continuity lines among the most important counterinsurgency military doctrines , which pave the road for today’s doctrines. The focus will be on the cultural dimension, which is here supposed to be one of the main keys to achieve victory.