There is a discrepancy in the contemporary debate on how to implement counterinsurgency successfully. The population-centric method appears to be more advocated. To widen the debate, it is of interest to examine the explanatory power in the opposite method: enemy-centric counterinsurgency. Jacquline Hazelton questions the population-centric methods and believes that the use of brute force is more successful.
The study was conducted as a case study with a theory-testing approach, to examine to what extent her theory could explain the outcomes of the Russian counterinsurgency operations in the two Chechen wars.
The results show that her theory has a very limited ability to explain these outcomes, due to its high presence in both cases, which weakens her theory. Based on the results and part of the purpose of this essay, it is arguable that it to some extent also weakens the whole enemy-centric method. To be able to draw further conclusions about this, additional studies are required.