Counterproductive Counterinsurgents: The Link Between Military Politicization and Counterinsurgency Effectiveness

Why do some authoritarian regimes outperform others when facing insurgencies? Comparing Algeria’s military regime during the 1992–2002 Algerian Civil War and Syria’s Assad regime, which had similar state capacity, during Syria’s 2011–2024 civil war, this article examines an underexplored factor in counterinsurgency literature: military politicization. It distinguishes between military-dominated regimes and those where civilian leaders constrain the military. Military-dominated regimes exhibit greater unity of effort, whereas constrained militaries suffer from shuffled command, fragmented communications, and military disloyalty. Analyzing civil–military relations reveals structural weaknesses that insurgents or external actors can exploit or that allies may mitigate to ensure regime survival.