ABSTRACT
The United Kingdom approach was concurrent, with political initiatives often complementing a constant military element. The Sri Lankan state’s struggle with the Tamil Tigers varied between concurrency and a sequential approach to fighting and negotiating. Ceasefires were part of the narrative of the conflict. The case of Colombia highlights the increased complexity when the state actor does not have a monopoly on the use of force and its opponent is not united and has the support of a foreign patron. Pakistan adopted a selective approach to the insurgent groups it confronted in the wake of the September 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan. The post-invasion authorities in Iraq, working in occasionally fractious tandem with their allies, pursued a selective approach to the country’s insurgency from the outset. The diverse cases show the utility of using a common framework to analyse these conflicts and the challenge of managing the mix of negotiating and fighting.
