There must surely come a day when I think of gender, COIN -- and my first thought is that of a brace of Soviet female snipers . But not today.

Here in Indonesia there are hundreds of different pirate DVDs of Russian war movies and a stock character is often a female sniper - often the love interest of the hero.

The other female interest is of course the nurse but sniper ladies get into action a bit more and are usually portrayed as quite good shots but unable to salute or march in step so perhaps fitting for COIN

My teen age son was really into these Russian war movies for awhile until he finally realized that they were a bit boring or maybe that he just got older.

Great Woody Guthrie song:
"Miss Pavlichenko"

The title means nothing and can be addressed any way Khalil wants to. This recalls a time only a few years back when the sudden popularity of CSI television mellerdramas led some college administrations to add the word "forensic" to as many course titles as possible.

Meanwhile, back at Scotland Yard, police headquarters in London, England, it's revealed that the bobbies are hopefully learning to be more sensitive and inclusive by submitting entries to a competition for the best gender-equality poem, or pome. Sounds like a joke, isn't.

If you are interested and have access, you can see the article on which the talk was largely based at The Review of International Studies, vol 37, issue 4, published in 2011. The article had been in gestationfor years before that and is part of a rather large historical project on confinement (of various sorts) in counterinsurgencies.

The talk went very well, and I had lots of very good feedback from the audience (many of whom are well-versed in all matters military) including Hew Strachan.

The other female interest is of course the nurse but sniper ladies get into action a bit more and are usually portrayed as quite good shots but unable to salute or march in step so perhaps fitting for COIN. My teen age son lifeinsuranceblog was really into these Russian war movies for awhile until he finally realized that they were a bit boring or maybe that he just got older.