in counterinsurgency as a French Army officer in the Algerian War. His theory of counterinsurgency is not primarily military, but a combination of military, political and social actions under the strong control of a single authority. Galula proposes four "laws" for counterinsurgency: The aim of the war is to gain the support of the population rather than control of territory. Most of the population will be neutral in the conflict; support of the masses can be obtained with the help of an active friendly minority. Support of the population may be lost. The population must be efficiently protected to allow it to cooperate without fear of retribution by the opposite party. Order enforcement should be done progressively by removing or driving away armed opponents, then gaining the support of the population, and eventually strengthening positions by building infrastructure and setting long-term relationships with the population. This must be done area by area, using a pacified territory as a basis of operation to conquer a neighboring area. Galula contends that: With his four principles in mind, Galula goes on to describe a general military and political strategy to put them into operation in an area that is under full insurgent control: According to Galula, some of these steps can be skipped in areas that are only partially under insurgent control, and most of them are unnecessary in areas already controlled by the government. Thus the essence of counterinsurgency warfare is summed up by Galula as "Build (or rebuild) a political machine from the population upward." Robert Thompson Robert Grainger Ker Thompson wrote Defeating Communist Insurgency in 1966, wherein he argued that a successful counterinsurgency effort must be proactive in seizing the initiative from insurgents. Thompson outlines five basic principles for a successful counterinsurgency: The government must have a clear political aim: to establish and maintain a free, independent and united country that is politically and economically stable and viable; The government must function in accordance with the law; The government must have an overall plan; The government must give priority to defeating political subversion, not the guerrilla fighters; In the guerrilla phase of an insurgency, a government must secure its base areas first. David Kilcullen In "The Three Pillars of Counterinsurgency", Dr. David Kilcullen, the Chief Strategist of the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the U.S. State Department in 2006, described a framework for interagency cooperation in counterinsurgency operations.