Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

fhs.se
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Afghanistan 1978-1992: Avsaknaden av Galula
Swedish National Defence College.
2010 (Swedish)Independent thesis Basic level (professional degree), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesisAlternative title
Afghanistan 1978-1992 : The absence of Galula (English)
Abstract [sv]

Begreppet counterinsurgency har fått stor uppmärksamhet efter 2001 och USA:s militäraengagemang i Afghanistan och Irak. USA har bedrivit ett gediget utvecklingsarbete sedan dess och en ny doktrin för just counterinsurgency presenterades 2006. Redan 1964 utkom fransmannen David Galula med en bok i ämnet. Det har alltså funnits teorier om counterinsurgency sedan dess. Sovjetunionens engagemang i Afghanistan under 1980-talet slutade med att den afghanska kommunistregimen kollapsade. Viljan att vinna konflikten borde ha funnits där och precis som USA har dragit erfarenheter, borde något ha gjorts för att försöka vinna konflikten även på 1980-talet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om de parter som försökte besegra den afghanska motståndsrörelsen gjorde det på ett sätt som kom att likna Galulas teorier om counterinsurgency. Konflikten har analyserats utifrån Galulas teori om upprorsbekämpning med både politiska och militära medel. Analysen har visat att Sovjetunionen och den afghanska kommunistregimen inte utvecklade sitt sättatt hantera konflikten i en riktning som motsvarade Galulas teorier. Den primära politiska orsaken var att regimen förlitade sig på förtryck för att försöka avskräcka motståndssympatier. Detta tillvägagångssätt ledde istället till ökat stöd för motståndsrörelsen. Militärt saknades medlen att befästa närvaro i nya områden där regimen kunde ha börjat utöva inflytande. I förlängningen innebardet att regimen saknade förmåga att bredda sin inflytandesfär.

Abstract [en]

The term counterinsurgency has received a lot of attention since 2001 and the U.S commitment in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S has conducted thorough developmental work since then and a new doctrine on counterinsurgency was presented in 2006. As early as 1964, the Frenchman David Galula issued a book on the subject, and there have existed theories on counterinsurgency ever since. The Soviet Union’s commitment in Afghanistan during the 1980s ended with the collapse of the Afghan communist regime. The will to win the conflict should have been present there, and in the same way that the U.S have capitalized on their experiences something ought to have been done to try to win the conflict during the 1980s. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the parties involved in the fight against the Afghan resistance acted in a way that resembles Galula’s theories on counterinsurgency. The conflict has been analyzed with Galulas theories on how to defeat an insurgency by both political and military means. The analysis has shown that the Soviet Union and the Afghan communist regime did not develop their way of handling the conflict in a way which is consistent with Galula’s theories. The primary political cause was that the regime put its trust in oppression in their attempts to discourage resistance sympathies. This approach resulted in an increase in support for the Afghan resistance rather than the support of the regime. Militarily, the lack of means to secure the regime’s political presence in new areas meant that the regime was unable to broaden its sphere of influence.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2010. , p. 30
Keywords [en]
Counterinsurgency, David Galula, The Afghan Communist regime, The Soviet union
Keywords [sv]
Counterinsurgency, David Galula, Afghanska kommunistregimen, Sovjetunionen
National Category
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-755OAI: oai:DiVA.org:fhs-755DiVA, id: diva2:328149
Uppsok
Social and Behavioural Science, Law
Supervisors
Available from: 2010-07-27 Created: 2010-07-01 Last updated: 2018-01-12Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(334 kB)698 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 334 kBChecksum SHA-512
45016e9ffcaddf1cd03cdd06c66a808210f8238edda9d9b6873d4a6f5f5b7f0a5cc5ff9daf3bef717905de9b95fd9d10e07d2ffdf14f9882b15c1b97e18789d2
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

By organisation
Swedish National Defence College
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 698 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 1134 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf