ABSTRACT
The liberal democracies’ record of failure in counterinsurgency warfare is frequently attributed to the effects of television coverage. It should be noted, however, that Britain lost the struggle against Irish independence long before television, as was effectively the case with the loss of its empire in general. The British starvation blockade of Germany in First World War and Allied city bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan in Second World War are major examples. But indeed, as the same study emphasizes, such instances predominantly occurred in desperate major wars for survival–a category that excludes the overwhelming majority of counterinsurgency wars against weak non-state rivals. Critics may argue that during the twentieth century democracies wielded formidable instruments of coercion and pressure in counterinsurgency wars and were often quite brutal. Counterinsurgency warfare’s record of failure turns out to be mainly the lot of modern liberal democracies–arising, in fact, from their noblest of traits.
