Today’s edition of TDI Friday Read is a compilation of posts addressing the question of manpower and counterinsurgency. The first four posts summarize research on the question undertaken during the first decade of the 21st century, while the Afghan and Iraqi insurgencies were in full bloom. Despite different research questions and analytical methodologies, each of the studies concluded that there is a relationship between counterinsurgent manpower and counterinsurgency outcomes.
The fifth post addresses the U.S. Army’s lack of a formal methodology for calculating manpower requirements for counterinsurgencies and contingency operations.
https://dupuyinstitute.dreamhosters.com/2016/06/29/has-the-army-given-up-on-counterinsurgency-research-again/
IMHO – Unless you have a viable government in place that can gain the support of the population and be a real alternative to the insurgents you are most unlikely to stop them permanently. The military effort is required to allow the nation building to continue so as to create the government. It cannot succeed on its own.