Why Allies Rebel: Defiant Local Partners in Counterinsurgency Wars

Why do powerful intervening militaries have such difficulty managing comparatively weak local partners in counterinsurgency wars? Set within the context of costly, large-scale military interventions such as the US war in Afghanistan, this book explains the conditions by which local allies comply with (or defy) the policy demands of larger security partners. Analysing nine large-scale post-colonial counterinsurgency interventions including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Lebanon, Cambodia, and Angola, this book utilizes thousands of primary source documents to identify and examine over 450 policy requests proposed by intervening forces to local allies. By dissecting these problematic partnerships, this book exposes a critical political dynamic in military interventions. It will appeal to academics and policymakers addressing counterinsurgency issues in foreign policy, security studies and political science.

• Examines nine large-scale post-colonial wars
• Uses thousands of primary source documents to examine alliances between local and intervening forces in counterinsurgencies
• Offers a new model explaining allied behaviour in complying with, or defying, the requests of foreign allies, and explaining uncooperative behaviour

Reviews

‘Elias is thoughtful and ambitious, using archival data to draw lessons from disparate proxy counterinsurgencies, including India in Sri Lanka, and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, among others. She applies those lessons to current dilemmas in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Given the current accumulation of unresolved subnational wars, this volume deserves careful consideration by policymakers and scholars.’
-Eli Berman, Professor of Economics, University of California San Diego, and co-editor of Proxy Wars