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This study aims to highlight the consequences on outposts in Afghanistan in the context of COIN and ISAF during 2003-2012. Previous research in this area is more oriented towards the perspective of COIN at the strategic and operational level and not at the tactical and local level. For example, previous research has written about how important military presence and adaptation are, but not what consequences the company that is deployed to an area and conducts the COIN operation receives. The study was designed with Kilcullen’s theory about COIN and his 28 articles as a basis, and the study was conducted with in-depth interviews as the main empirical material, with officers who served in the Swedish Armed Forces, and the British Army during 2005-2012 in Afghanistan. The study finds that one consequence at one of the outposts was from the terrain, which was that the local infrastructure couldn’t support heavy military vehicles that came to the outpost, which resulted in the roads and irrigation ditches being destroyed by the vehicles' weight. The study also found interesting patterns amongst the informants that had the same consequences, which was that the roads leading towards the outposts were often very few, which led to a predictability for the enemy to use against the units stationed at the outpost. Another interesting find in this study is that there was a difference in how open each outpost was. For example, the British Army’s outposts were more open to civilians than the Swedish outposts, although the British Army had more fighting in their area than their Swedish counterpart.

The United Nations has a long history of peacekeeping missions. These have evolved over time but since the end of the Cold War there has been rapid growth in those missions where the remit placed on the peacekeepers, both military and civilian, is more complex and demanding. In trying to define these missions and their mandates a wide range of terminology has been developed in an effort to describe the exact nature of the mission. Since many of these deployments take place into theatres where there is no peace to keep, or where a fragile peace reverts to a conflict situation such tight definitions often lead to the troops involved no longer having an appropriate mandate. More recently some of these larger missions constitute in fact interventions to impose peace. Attempts to find a `peace¿ classification for such deployments often confuse the issue rather than bring clarity. In reality these missions are not peacekeeping at all. The almost forgotten doctrine, principles and practices of Counterinsurgency provide a better framework for defining these missions, the respective roles of the key players and the factors necessary to bring success.

This thesis examines the British army and its legacy of counterinsurgency from the 20th century. It analyses the effects of post-colonial counterinsurgency and the army’s ability to learn from previous counterinsurgency conflicts to create new doctrine from earlier examples that could have had lessons for the UK forces in southern Iraq. Doctrine (both official and unofficial) ranges from endorsed army field manuals to theory written by experts while on defence fellowships. The army’s ability to create new doctrine from previous campaigns lessons and how it is diffused across the armed forces is also assessed. The conflicts used as post-colonial counterinsurgencies scrutinise Oman and Northern Ireland. These two case studies provide mixed lessons, that should advance and expand British counterinsurgency theory and models. The previous historical occurrences of counterinsurgency have created a British approach which has established a four-pillar framework which encompasses minimum force, civil-military co-operation, use of intelligence and tactical flexibility. This approach could identify lessons for a modern British army deployed to Iraq. If lessons and previous outcomes are analysed to create new doctrine, strategy and tactics that encompass the four pillars framework, what went wrong in southern Iraq? Could lessons from earlier campaigns have assisted British efforts?

The purpose of this thesis is to determine how different variables can affect a terrorist group's reaction to a targeted leadership strike, known as a decapitation strike. Decapitation strikes often produce unwanted results, such as a splintering of the terrorist group, or a failure to destroy the group. It is important that we understand which variables can lead to a group's destruction after a decapitation strike, to maximize the decapitation's effectiveness. In my research I have determined that group size, group ideological extremism, and the role of the leader targeted all have a substantial impact on the success of the decapitation strike. Using these three variables, I will examine three groups which have varying size, extremism, and leadership, and determine whether the decapitation strikes were successful and how these variables affected the results.

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