An education in counterinsurgency

摘要

In Badges Without Borders Stuart Schrader provides a broad overview of the evolution of American counterinsurgency practices during the Cold War, particularly during the period covering presidents Eisenhower through Nixon. While the book's focus is an examination of US overseas police programs in constituting a 'discretionary empire'' and their 'boomerang effect' on domestic policing, these themes are nevertheless set against the background of the rise and decline of what was generally referred to as the 'counterinsurgency fad' inside the US Government. The concept of a 'fad' is not one that is well-explored despite being referred to by practitioners and academics alike. As used here, it simply refers to a topic and/or a term that receives a great deal of attention by policymakers and the bureaucracy, which can include being constantly referred to in the discourse of officials, policies generated or characterized by, funding and other resources associated with it, and so forth. With respect to 'counterinsurgency,' the concept of a 'fad' is not only appropriate as it qualifies on all the accounts just listed, but the term 'fad' was also employed by US officials to describe the phenomenon.