When Counterinsurgency Wins: Sri Lanka's Defeat of the Tamil Tigers

For twenty—six years, civil war tore Sri Lanka apart. Despite numerous peace talks, cease—fires, and external military and diplomatic pressure, war raged on between the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sinhala—dominated Sri Lankan government. Then, in 2009, the Sri Lankan military defeated the insurgents. The win was unequivocal, but the terms of victory were not. The first successful counterinsurgency campaign of the twenty—first century left the world with many question...