Know Thine Enemy? Generating, Negotiating and Codifying Knowledge of Insurgencies into U.S. Counterinsurgency Doctrine, 2004-2006
Worrall, J.
Worrall, J.
Publication Date
2025
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© 2025 Taylor & Francis. This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Strategic Studies available online at the DOI below.
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embargoedAccess
Accepted for publication
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Awarded
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2026-10-23
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Abstract
Building on existing works which conceptualise doctrine writing as a form of social construction, this article theorises the messy, negotiated processes through which specific forms of knowledge – in this case specific knowledge of insurgencies – are generated, negotiated and codified into doctrine. It illustrates these processes using novel interview data and documentary analysis of drafts and feedback rounds throughout the writing of FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency (2006). This process tracing reveals that far from a linear, objective process of gathering and incorporating knowledge of insurgencies, the codification of knowledge is instead a negotiated, nonlinear process shaped by stakeholder politics and time constraints.
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Accepted manuscript
Citation
Waterman A and Worrall J (2025) Know Thine Enemy? Generating, Negotiating and Codifying Knowledge of Insurgencies into U.S. Counterinsurgency Doctrine, 2004-2006. Journal of Strategic Studies. Accepted for publication.
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Article
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Notes
The accepted manuscript title is: 'Know thy enemy?'