PAPER: Military Interventions in Sierra Leone: Lessons From a Failed State (pdf), By Larry J. Woods and Colonel Timothy R. Reese, The Long War Series, Occasional Paper 28, Combat Studies Institute Press, US Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
These studies are great (I grabbed a bunch last year in Leavenworth when I spoke at a conference). Sierra Leone shows what a modest military intervention can achieve if well-designed and well-timed. About 100 British marines accomplished a lot.
Point being: only bad interventions must necessarily be huge ones. Good ones can come in a variety of sizes and public-private mixes.
Look at Kurdish Iraq for example: few troops, heavy tilt to private sector.
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