The Effectiveness of Military Medicine in Counterinsurgency Campaigns

Abstract

While medical diplomacy has played a large role in US counterinsurgency (COIN) campaigns, few studies have been done to show their effectiveness. This study is a systematic review based on literature published by July 2014, looking at military medicine’s role in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). Both scientific and military databases were searched and yielded an initial 1,204 papers; however, these were later narrowed down to four articles, mostly restricted by the requirement of structured, scientific methods. These four studies were not well‐powered and focused on such different topics that no real conclusion could be drawn on the topic. In the end, the real value of the study was to show that despite the significant amount of resources poured into these COIN medical operations, very little study has been done to see if they have any effect.