(Page 1 of 43) - "Draining the Sea or Feeding the Fire?": The Use of Population Relocation in Counterinsurgency Operations authored by Greenhill, Kelly.

DRAINING THE SEA, OR FEEDING THE FIRE

Draining the Sea, or Feeding the Fire?: The Use of Population Relocation

in Counterinsurgency Operations

Kelly M. Greenhill

[1]

Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation

Stanford University

Control of the masses…is the master weapon of modern warfare.”

[2]

Introduction
It is generally agreed that conducting successful counterinsurgency operations requires a different
set of strategies and tactics than is true in conventional warfare. Most importantly,
counterinsurgency operations require a focus on the non-combatant population as well as on the
combatants themselves. This is true in large part because the population frequently serves as the
rebels’ most reliable source of personnel, intelligence, and shelter, as well as of logistical and
moral support. In fact, it has become a widely accepted tenet that insurgent movements require at
least the passive support of their civilian populations if they are to succeed. Not surprisingly,
therefore, separating the insurgents from the population would seem an important, perhaps even
critical, mechanism to aid in their defeat. Indeed, such separation is often considered a

fundamental prerequisite in any counterinsurgency campaign.

[3]

Sometimes, this separation is achieved through the creation of a physical barrier against guerrilla
infiltration, like the French Morice Line in Algeria in the late 1950s, the American McNamara
Line in Vietnam in the late 1960s, or the Rhodesian cordon sanitaire in the mid-1970s.
However, a frequently employed alternative to a static line has been the resettlement of non-
combatant populations to (at least, purportedly) defended locations, in order to-in Mao's
terms-"drain the sea" of water (civilians) to expose and kill the fish (guerrillas). By depopulating
an area, that piece of real estate is essentially drained of the water so the fish can no longer swim,
thereby depriving a fighting force of their logistical base, an important source of intelligence, and
their capacity to blend in with the general population. This kind of relocation has been employed
since Biblical times and widely used since the era of colonial warfare during the nineteenth

century.

[4]

It was, for instance, used more or less simultaneously by the British Army in the

Boer War (1899-1902), by the Spanish Army during the insurrection in Cuba (1895-1898), and
by the US Army in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War (1898-1902). It has
remained an integral part of counterinsurgency doctrine and operations ever since, most notably
since its revival by the British during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960). More recent uses

include contemporary counterinsurgency operations in Turkey,

and

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