Explaining anomalous outcomes in war: The Indian army in Sri Lanka.

Title: Explaining anomalous outcomes in war: The Indian army in Sri Lanka.
Identifier: AAI9820574
identifier: 9820574
Creator: Rajagopalan, Rajesh.
Contributor: Adviser: Howard H. Lentner
Date: 1998
Language: English
Publisher: City University of New York.
Subject: Political Science, International Law and Relations | Political Science, General
Abstract: This dissertation explains why militarily strong states lose guerrilla wars to far weaker insurgent groups. I argue that the counterinsurgency doctrines of regular armies have a positional-war bias that is unsuitable to fighting guerrilla wars. The Indian army's experience in fighting the guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka in the late 1980s illustrates the effect of the positional-war bias in the counterinsurgency doctrines of regular armies. I use the organizational- culture approach and the neorealist approach to explain why such biased doctrines are adopted. Because the two approaches suggest contradictory answers, and because both are contending theories of international politics, how well they explain the puzzle can provide important clues to their utility in explaining international politics. I conclude that the neorealist approach provides a better explanation; however, I also find that the two approaches may have more in common than most previous studies had indicated.
Type: dissertation
Source: PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
degree: Ph.D.