Winning ‘Hearts and Minds’? A Critical Analysis of Counter-Insurgency Operations in Afghanistan

Intimate war

“…Founded in contexts of colonial policing, it reflects a normative Western approach to legitimacy (Egnell, 2010) and, in common with just war claims (below), it involves coercive behaviour masked by a stance of ethical care (Dixon, 2009). It can easily become counterproductive (Egnell, 2010). Occupation, too, is always countered by resistance and activism among its targets (Harker, 2011;Marshall, 2013;Pain, 2014b), while they work to protect the intimate -children, homes, bodies, minds -from the latest attacks.…”

“…Hearts and minds, as a military strategy, is as contested as shock and awe in its ability to work long term to achieve the perpetrator's interests (Egnell, 2010;Sepp, 2007). Founded in contexts of colonial policing, it reflects a normative Western approach to legitimacy (Egnell, 2010) and, in common with just war claims (below), it involves coercive behaviour masked by a stance of ethical care (Dixon, 2009).…”

“…Founded in contexts of colonial policing, it reflects a normative Western approach to legitimacy (Egnell, 2010) and, in common with just war claims (below), it involves coercive behaviour masked by a stance of ethical care (Dixon, 2009). It can easily become counterproductive (Egnell, 2010).…”

“…Perpetrators in long term conflicts adopt strategies alongside physical violence to retain control of the people and places they are targeting. Counter-insurgency strategies frequently attempt to play through the emotions and psyches of civilians -in British and US military strategy, winning 'hearts and minds' (Egnell, 2010).…”

Concepts of Legitimacy: Congruence and Divergence in the Afghan Conflict

“…More than ten years later, the United States decided to implement a counterinsurgency strategy to stabilise the country and legitimise the newly instated central government. However, the instruments chosen to do sotop-down statebuilding based primarily on security provision in combination with the establishment of security forces and kinetic missionsdiffered from the Taliban's approach as security and democratisation were put before tradition and custom (Egnell 2010).…”