Leiden University Student Repository

Sijbrant, Laurens (2024)

The Forgotten Way: An Analysis of Dutch and US Counterinsurgency Policies in the Java and Philippine War

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

This paper contributes to the counterinsurgency literature by examining what the most effective strategies, tactics and conditions were that led to victory in the counterinsurgency campaigns of the Dutch against the Javanese in the Java War (1825-1830) and the US against the Filipinos in the Philippine War (1899-1902). I will analyse the cases using the comparative method (Most Different Systems Design) and the congruence method. The analyses show that the most influential causes in winning the war were that the Dutch and US forces had a high level of interaction with the local population, decentralised their military and civil policy, and successfully balanced a strategy of winning an influential part of the population over with benefits while using punishments to sever the bonds between insurgents and their supporters. My findings will cast doubt on whether contemporary Western Democracies can and should engage in counterinsurgency warfare, seeing the high moral and human cost...Show moreThis paper contributes to the counterinsurgency literature by examining what the most effective strategies, tactics and conditions were that led to victory in the counterinsurgency campaigns of the Dutch against the Javanese in the Java War (1825-1830) and the US against the Filipinos in the Philippine War (1899-1902). I will analyse the cases using the comparative method (Most Different Systems Design) and the congruence method. The analyses show that the most influential causes in winning the war were that the Dutch and US forces had a high level of interaction with the local population, decentralised their military and civil policy, and successfully balanced a strategy of winning an influential part of the population over with benefits while using punishments to sever the bonds between insurgents and their supporters. My findings will cast doubt on whether contemporary Western Democracies can and should engage in counterinsurgency warfare, seeing the high moral and human cost necessary to win the war.Show less

Counterinsurgency Warfare

Colonial Warfare

Java War

Philippine War

Author

Sijbrant, Laurens

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Global Conflict in the Modern Era

Supervisors

Milevski, L

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en