The downfall of David Petraeus sent such shock waves through the policy establishment when it hit the news in November because the cause was so banal: the most celebrated and controversial military officer of our time compelled to resign from his dream job as CIA director as the result of an extramarital affair. Yet long after the headshaking details are forgotten, Petraeus’ larger significance will remain, as his career traced one of the era’s crucial strategic narratives — the rise and fall of counterinsurgency in U.S. military policy.
As recently as 2006, the country’s top generals were openly scorning counterinsurgency as a concept; the secretary of defense all but banned the term’s utterance. One year later, it was enshrined as army doctrine, promoted at the highest levels of the Pentagon, and declared official U.S. policy by the president. Then, five years after that, a new president and new defense secretary barred the military chiefs from even considering counterinsurgency among the war-fighting scenarios used to calculate the military’s force requirements.
looking beyond borders 