Book review of Stephen Quick, 'The Dhofar War'

Abstract

This is a holistic politico-military history of British operations in Oman, built on an impressive range of archival sources. Stephen Quick’s book examines the communist-led Dhofar region insurgency in western Oman. Foundational themes tying together this book echo other British counterinsurgencies: build-up of (mostly local) forces; hearts and minds civic-action programmes; overall British political direction; SAS-run psychological-operations to split Marxist insurgents from Islamic Dhofaris; the use of turned surrendered insurgents as loyalist firqa forces. Britain’s removal of Oman’s feudal Sultan Said in a managed coup in 1970 in favour of his more forward-thinking son, Qaboos, was key, highlighting the politically driven, Clausewitzian quality to overall strategy. Qaboos facilitated the ‘carrot’ part of operations to win the population. His antediluvian father hated Dhofaris and demanded the ‘stick’ of collective punishment after every action by the People’s Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arab Gulf (PFLOAG). As with so many counterinsurgencies, without source materials, we see the insurgents through a glass, darkly.