Using suitable examples from counterterrorism operations around the world, provide an assessment of the effectiveness of coercive military operations in countering the threat posed by radical Islamist groups like ISIS, Al Qaeda, Taliban, Abu Sayyaf, etc.
in addressing this question, you have two primary tasks:
1. A clear outline for ascertaining a coercive military operation’s (i.e. the use force to achieve a goal) effectiveness for countering terrorism. This can be done either through critically juxtaposing the pros and cons of using the military force for counter terrorism before coming to an informed conclusion as to its effectiveness or by providing a list of factors that you think would constitute a metric that can be used to assess the effectiveness of the military’s effectiveness.
2. Provide at least two (2) specific examples of military using force being used to combat Islamist groups (so no discussion of the IRA, FARC, the Naxals etc.) that you will use as evidence to prove your first task. It would be preferable if you provide a brief (two or three sentences) outline of what the operation entailed and who it was/is against before jumping straight into your analysis so you are not only setting the scene but we can ascertain that you are not confusing different military operations and know what you are talking about. For this essay, a ‘suitable example’ needs to be one in which the military is actively using coercive force is active and intended part of the operation (e.g. air strikes, special forces raids etc.); examples where the military was simply present and intended for training/capacity building, peacekeeping/monitoring missions or intelligence sharing rather than combat are not considered relevant to the question.
