FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency

FM 3-24 (December 2006) is the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, authored by Gen. David Petraeus and signed by him on the second page, along with Marine Corps General James Amos, two of the most respected commanders in the U.S. ground forces. The impressive and influential 282-page document addresses the many difficult Counterinsurgency (COIN) issues that are in the news daily. The manual attempts to rectify the lack of analysis of counterinsurgency operations that has persisted since the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s.

FM 3-24 defines what an insurgency is and how it relates to conventional war. The definition, then, of Counterinsurgency is the military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological, and civic actions taken by a government to defeat an insurgency. The manual further describes all of the requirements and options for campaigns and operations with their supporting elements necessary for successful COIN as a theater of war.While it is the central document of the U.S. ground forces current thinking about COIN, FM 3-24 (and actions abased on it) have drawn wide criticism within professional military circles, universities and think tanks, as well as from political commentators. To fully understand the controversy, FM 3-24 is the essential background.

This download is the December 2006 release of the document.