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It's all the rage: why mechanization doesn't explain COIN outcomes

2010; Routledge; Volume: 21; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09592318.2010.505484

1743-9558

Niel A. Smith, Nathan W. Toronto,

Defense, Military, and Policy Studies

Abstract A recent article, ‘Rage Against the Machines’, does a disservice to the debate over what explains counterinsurgency (COIN) success. While it establishes a negative correlation between the diffusion of military mechanization in the state system and COIN success, its theoretical argument does not hold up under close scrutiny and its micro-case comparison of two units in Iraq during 2003–2004 ignores obvious counter-examples and factors that influence COIN success, such as leadership. A deeper inquiry would have revealed that there is much more to COIN success than simply not having access to vehicles. Keywords: counterinsurgency outcomesmechanizationRage Against the Machines Acknowledgements We are grateful to Daniel Cox, Andrew Johnson, Richard Kiper, John Malevich, Sanford Sheaks, and an anonymous reviewer for comments on earlier versions of this paper. 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