Capturing Hearts and Minds

Conrad Crane is the person to watch when it comes to the future of Iraq

February 6, 2007

Conrad Crane, one of the Newsweek's 21 people to watch in 2007.

Conrad Crane is someone to watch—and take seriously. At least according to Newsweek magazine, which put him on its list of 21 people to watch in 2007.

Crane, a Dickinson College adjunct professor, is gaining national recognition for his prescient record of raising red flags about the U.S. military's role in Iraq long before others joined the battle cry. Moreover, he and his colleagues in the military recently released a how-to manual on how to cope with such a messy aftermath.

His updated analysis, in the form of a 279-page counterinsurgency manual for the military, is designed for use not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but any place where insurgencies occur.

"The longer the U.S. presence is maintained, the more likely violent resistance will develop," Crane and fellow U.S. Army War College analyst W. Andrew Terrill wrote. "A force initially viewed as liberators can rapidly be relegated to the status of invaders."

The manual "helped solidify Crane's position as one of the more innovative thinkers in his field," Newsweek reported in its Dec. 25-Jan.1 issue. Crane, lead writer of the manual, said the manual's usefulness extends beyond Iraq, where U.S. forces are attempting to quell insurgents.

Crane, director of the U.S. Army Military History Institute at the War College, is teaching a course this semester at Dickinson on U.S. military history.

"Some of the best weapons for counterinsurgency do not shoot," Crane said in the manual, adding that the goal of the military is to achieve success through aid and reconstruction.