Operational themes is comprised of the principal activities of insurgency counterinsurgency and unconventional warfare?

Answer 1

Thanks for your question, but let me phrase it correctly:

There are several operational themes: 1-Conventional warfare, 2-Counterinsurgency Operations, and 3-Counterterrorism Operations.

1-Conventional Warfare: Think of WW2- US against Japan, British vs Germany, USSR vs Germany, etc. The common denominator was it was country fighting country, with the US Marines fighting the Imperial Japanese Army, or the Russian Army fighting the Germans. While civilians were killed, they did not fight, and finally, the German and Japanese governments surrendered, with a formal surrender ceremony.

Today's wars are more complicated; they are 'non-conventional' in that different groups are fighting and the local people may or may not support them: Osama and Al-Qada attacked the United States on 9/11, and while they may have had permission from Mullah Omar to live in Afghanistan while planning the attack; the Afghan government and people did not participate.

Counterterrorism is targeting specific terrorists to be killed or captured. US Navy Seals targeted Osama, killed him, and captured others. No townspeople were hurt, or even threatened by the US force.

Counterinsurgency is a mix of the two. It's 'nation-building,' ...think of Somalia...they need a stable government, jobs, education, basic health care, so the world steps to assist in building these parts of a society. Do Somali's want to be come pirates? Most do not, but if that's the only way to earn money to feed your family...then you become a Somali pirate. The idea is to help build a society that can take care of itself and become (eventually) a viable member of the world community.