David Galula

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David Galula (1919-1967) was a French military officer born in Tunisia to French parents. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel ^[1]. His 1964 book, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice is now heavily advocated by the US Military for advice on operations in the campaign in Iraq.^[2]

In the book, Galula "argued that insurgencies are revolutionary wars whose outcome is determined by control of, and support from, the population. The best way to think about such wars is to imagine the board game of Go. Each side starts with limited assets, each has the support of a minority of the territory and the population. Each has some assets within the enemy's sphere of influence. The game ends when one side takes control of the majority of the population, and thus the territory."^[3]

In 2006 the RAND Corporation released a formerly classified 1963 report, which formed the basis of Galula's 1964 book. The book Pacification in Algeria is available from RAND. The new edition includes a foreword by counterterrorism expert Bruce Hoffman that elucidates the relevance of this historic study in the context of modern times.

He is quoted quite a bit in the Army's Counterinsurgency Manual (FM 3-24).

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