David Galula

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David Galula
1919 – 11 May 1967
David Galula Scan-080918-0001.jpg
Nickname Jean Caran
Place of birth Sfax, Tunisia
Place of death Arpajon, France
Allegiance France
Service/branch French Army
Years of service 1939-1962
Rank Lieutenant colonel,[1]
Commands held 3rd Company, 45th Colonial Infantry Battalion
Battles/wars World War II
*Liberation of France
Algerian War
Other work Research associate at Harvard University

David Galula (1919-1967) was a French military officer and scholar. He was influential in developing counterinsurgency theories .

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born in Sfax, then part of the French colony of Tunisia, Gallula obtained his baccalauréat in Casablanca,[2] and graduated from the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in the number 126 promotion of 1939-1940.

In 1941, he was expelled from the French officer corps, in accordance with the Statute on Jews of the Vichy State. After living as a civilian in North Africa, he joined the I Corps of the Army of the Liberation, and served during the liberation of France, receiving a wound during the battle for Elba in June 1944.

In 1945, Galula departed for China, to work as an assistant military attaché at the French embassy in Beijing, where he witnessed the rise to power of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1948, he took part in the United Nations Special Commission on the Balkans during the Greek Civil War. From 1952 to February 1956, he served as a military attaché at the French embassy in Hong Kong. He visited the Philippines, and studied the Indochina War without taking part in it.

From August 1956 to April 1958, during the Algerian War, Galula, then a captain, led the 3rd Company of the 45th Bataillon d'Infanterie Coloniale. He distinguished himself by applying personal tactics in counterinsurgency to his sector of Kabylie, at Djebel Mimoun,[3] near Tigzirt, effectively eliminating the nationalist insurgency in his sector and earning accelerated promotion from this point.

In 1958, Galula was transferred to the Headquarters of National Defence in Paris. He gave a series of conferences abroad and attended the Armed Forces Staff College.

In 1962, Galula resigned his commission to study in the United States, where he obtained a position of research associate at the Center for International Affairs of Harvard University.

[edit] Works and Influence

He described his experiences in two books, later published by the RAND Corporation: Pacification in Algeria in 1963, and Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice in 1964.[4] His books analyse his experiences in Indochina, Greece and Algeria, giving a taxonomy of favourable and unfavourable settings for a revolutionary war from the point of view of the loyalist or revolutionary forces. Galula cites Mao Zedong with "revolutionary war is 80 percent political action and only 20 percent military", and proposes four "laws" for order enforcement:[5]

  1. The aim of the war is to gain the support of the population rather than control of territory.
  2. Most of the population will be neutral in the conflict; support of the masses can be obtained with the help of an active friendly minority.
  3. Support of the population may be lost. The population must be efficiently protected to allow it to cooperate without fear of retribution by the opposite party.
  4. Order enforcement should be done progressively by removing or driving away armed opponents, then gaining support of the population, and eventually strengthening positions by building infrastructure and setting long-term relationships with the population. This must be done area by area, using a pacified territory as a basis of operation to conquer a neighbouring area.

He sums up the nature of the war as "building or rebuilding a political apparatus within the population".[6]

Galula has been considered an important military expert by contemporary defence experts.[7][8] Notably, the US Military used his experiences as examples in the context of the Iraq War[9][10][11][12] and he is often quoted in the US Army's Counterinsurgency Manual (FM 3-24). Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice is highly suggested reading for students of the Command and General Staff College.[13]

[edit] Books

[edit] References

  1. ^ (French) • "CONTRE-INSURRECTION : Théorie et pratique", Centre de Doctrine de l'Emploi des Forces
  2. ^ Greenwood Publishing
  3. ^ Théâtre des opérations
  4. ^ "FRENCH LESSONS - New York Post". Nypost.com. September 22, 2008. http://www.nypost.com/seven/04292007/postopinion/postopbooks/french_lessons_postopbooks_ann_marlowe.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
  5. ^ "CRInfo - Book Summary of Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice by David Galula". Crinfo.org. http://www.crinfo.org/booksummary/10672/. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
  6. ^ "THÉÂTRE DES OPÉRATIONS: « CONTRE-INSURRECTION, THÉORIE ET PRATIQUE » PAR DAVID GALULA – UNE FICHE DE LECTURE COMMENTÉE". Reflexionstrategique.blogspot.com. 21 March 2008. http://reflexionstrategique.blogspot.com/2008/03/contre-insurrection-thorie-et-pratique.html. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
  7. ^ http://www.maxwell.af.mil/info-ops/iosphere/iosphere_summer06_kilcullen.pdf
  8. ^ http://www.defenselink.mil/policy/downloads/USDPMunichSpeech_AS_DELIVERED.doc
  9. ^ "A Counterinsurgency Campaign Plan Concept: The Galula Compass". Oai.dtic.mil. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA436240. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
  10. ^ "Fighting a Global Insurgency Utilizing Galula's Counterinsurgency Warfare Theory". Oai.dtic.mil. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA467236. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
  11. ^ "Special Operations Command, Pacific (SOCPAC)". Socpac.socom.mil. http://www.socpac.socom.mil/reading/?search=author&q=David%20Galula. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
  12. ^ "PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Winter 2007-08". Carlisle.army.mil. http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/PARAMETERS/07winter/alderson.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
  13. ^ "U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Deputy Commandant's Deploying Officer Reading List". Cgsc.army.mil. http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/biblio/deploylist.asp. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
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