Compressing Politics in Counterinsurgency (COIN): Implications for COIN Theory from India’s Northeast

Alex Waterman

Archive data: Person was Visiting Fellow at IDSA Alex is a doctoral candidate in the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, UK, with a background in history… Continue reading Compressing Politics in Counterinsurgency (COIN): Implications for COIN Theory from India’s Northeast read more

Counterinsurgency (COIN) has long been recognised as a political phenomenon, but current theoretical understandings of politics in COIN reflect ideal types, overlooking the depth and complexity of the politics of insurgency and COIN. Drawing from India’s experience in its northeastern region, this article argues that COIN theory overlooks the political agency and multiplicity of actors, as well as overlooking the fundamentally political scope of interactions that take place between them. It calls upon COIN theorists to begin to map out this complex picture by urging greater integration between academics and practitioners studying COIN and theoretical inputs from wider academic disciplines.