A Failed Counterinsurgency Strategy: The British Southern Campaign- 1780-1781 Are There Lessons for Today?

The Southern Campaign (1780-1781) was the application of the British grand strategy to conduct a counterinsurgency operation aimed at pacifying the Southern Colonies. The campaign was based on the flawed assumption that the Southern colonies contained a large loyalist population, and thus could be easily brought under British control. However, the plan was so poorly planned that the British operations inflamed the population and pushed them towards the rebels rather than pacifying them.Research of the strategy and subsequent application of the plan is of contemporary interest, especially when analyzed using current doctrinal concepts. The British Southern campaign is an ideal case study on the fatal ramifications of failing to apply the principles of MOOTW as contained in JP 3-07, and has surprising parallels to what the US is currently experiencing in Iraq.