ABSTRACT
Makers of strategy are not only responsible for prewar assessments, but must be responsive during war and capable of reassessing their enemy and their approach to the enemy. The record of French, British, and American counterinsurgency campaigns shows that this learning process can be aided by attention to lessons of past “small wars” and even to general principles of insurgency. Such distilled wisdom is difficult to apply to new situations, but the price for inattention to experience may be failure.
