ABSTRACT
Sri Lanka’s victory in its three-decade struggle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been held up to be everything from atrocity to stunning victory. In particular, though, given global security context, it is labeled a decisive defeat of “terrorism.” This, most decidedly, it was not. Rather, a long-running insurgency which used terrorism as one method among many maneuvered itself into a position where, arguably, it had achieved a tenuous victory. It thus found itself as a state seeking to challenge another. This proved fatal when its rival engaged in warfighting reform and fielded superior leadership, strategy, and combat power.
