Philippine Counterinsurgency Success: Implications for the Human Domain of Warfare (Defense)

In mid-2009 the Armed Forces of the Philippines dramatically changed their strategic approach to countering multiple long-standing insurgencies within the Philippine archipelago. The foundation of that approach was nationally articulated in the Internal Peace and Security Plan “Bayanihan,” clearly outlining the government’s overall framework for peace, as well as the two key tenets that reflected the change in policy. Although this change represented a paradigm shift and was focused, mostly for public consumption, on winning the peace, the tenets of protecting the population and whole of nation approach stood out as containing tremendous promise. This shift, anchored by focus on a new domain of warfare, succeeded where the past 40 years of strategy had failed. This new domain is the human domain. In this paper I will explore whether a strategy that clearly focuses on people first, in lieu of focus on the enemy, represents indications that we should consider a more comprehensive operating environment, a new domain, of warfare.